The Escape
by Hazel Sparks
Summary: Takes place after the Avengers: Loki makes a daring escape when Thor returns him to Asgard. Though he succeeds, it doesn't quite go as he hoped - he ends up the last place he expected with the last person he wanted to come with. Stranded in a foreign world, will the Asgardians find a way to escape this? T for mild language and my paranoia. PLEASE read&review thanks!
1. Loki's Dilemma - Prologue

**Hi people! This is my first ever fanfic and I have school now :P so please be patient with me...thanks to everyone who followed or favorited this! please review!**

**Avengers seemed like a good first story...its rated T for mild language and violence... no pairings right now but possible OC later**

**I promise the later chapters get better and longer- keep reading!**

**obviously I own nothing except my possible OC later...the rest is Marvel's**

Also, this is the revised Ch. 1 and when I was writing later chapters I came up with this, so I thought I'd post it on this one too, so don't be confused when you see it later in the A/N:

"_**You guys have been great and I really want the writing feedback I came for, so from this point on we're going to play a little game: **__If you are an author and you leave a specific, quality, honest review on my writing, good or bad, I will follow the link to your profile and leave a review on part of one of your stories, too, as soon as I can.__" _

**so there it is. **

**/ / / / / / /**

Loki stared fixedly at the ground, as if suddenly very interested in a certain spot on the concrete. In truth, he simply couldn't meet his "brother's" gaze, which fell sadly upon him as Thor silently prepared the Tesseract for them to depart. They were standing in a sunny, open area in a park that would have been pleasant under other circumstances. Loki found no joy in it, though. The fight was nearly gone from his deep green eyes; the loathing, the mockery, the playful mischief wasn't there for the time being as the gravity of his situation sunk in.

The Other would come for him for his failure, he knew, if the Allfather didn't destroy him first. As he stood there waiting, it stunned him to think that he had once, seemingly so long ago, considered Odin to be _his_ own father - _that lying, thieving bastard_. Still, whatever punishment Odin had in mind would probably be far preferable to what the Other had planned for him. Loki shuddered at the thought.

He looked up for a moment to survey the Midgardian city, the one they call 'New York'.

The one that should have been _his_.

It was impressive, the vastness of it. The fresh smoke and ash from battle rose amongst the towering structures. Closer, a small crowd of mortals had gathered curiously, to watch him be taken away, he supposed. He ground his teeth behind the humiliating muzzle they had clamped on him like he was some sort of _dog_. He looked away from them. He noticed the Tesseract's soft blue glow as Thor tightened his grip on the handle and muttered something to Heimdall. It wouldn't be long now.

_I could have had it_, he thought, _I could have had it and this whole little world, if it was not been for _Thor_ and his damned mortal friends_. It seemed that they were now leaving the Midgardian city as well, going their separate ways. _Probably gone to hide away again, those disgusting lost creatures. _

Loki forced himself to look back at Thor as they left. He'd intended to spit a few choice words at him as well, but couldn't seeing as how he was gagged. _Hmph_. He settled for simply glaring at him, and the spark of venom contained in that glare was more than enough to get his message across.

**/ / / / /**

While Loki had seemed somewhat subdued since they captured him, Thor couldn't help but notice an edge to his glare; a look of cleverness and defiance dancing behind his mask that promised trouble. (And those were the only kind of promises Loki had a record of keeping.)

How he wished it wasn't there. How Thor wished he could have his brother back, and undo the harm his brother had done to this world in his current lost state. He had once been lost, too, he remembered. Perhaps he could convince Allfather Odin to have mercy on his brother, and find a way to teach Loki, as he had taught Thor when he was led astray by this lust for power that had claimed so many.

But that was for the Allfather to sort out, he thought as he nodded a final farewell to the Midgardians. He accepted the Tesseract, encased in a cylindrical tube of glass and metal, from one of their government's personnel. Without a word, Thor grasped his end of the Tesseract's casing in his iron grip and twisted the handle, leaving Midgard behind.

**/ / / / /**

Loki felt the mortal world slip away, and thought again about the world awaiting him: Asgard. The world he had once called his home. The world that hated him. (Well, at least one that was currently angry and hated him more than a lot of the other worlds did.)

_This was _not_ good_. _Not good at all_. He suspected that, no matter how much Thor begged (which he undoubtedly would), Odin would either destroy him or banish him from Asgard. Then, if he was banished, he would be left to his own devices in any number of places in the Nine Realms, and it would be no secret. The Other would eventually find out wherever he was and ultimately catch him. Then he would wish Thor had just allowed Odin to kill him.

**/ / / /**

Loki felt his feet touch solid ground and saw Asgard come into focus. He stood shakily next to Thor on the Bifrost, gritting his teeth behind his muzzle and clenching his fists tightly in their shackles. Being propelled through space to another dimension while injured was _not_ fun. And he was not especially excited at what awaited him at this destination.

He had to escape from here, he decided, before anyone could find where he went. He glanced around what was left of the Bifrost, where they had landed. Not much remained from his last visit here; the famous rainbow bridge now came to a halt at a jagged edge over the abyss. The waves of the deepest, darkest ocean crashed far below his feet. Countless stars with countless worlds shined upon them from all directions. He could make out the striking golden towers of the Realm Eternal in the distance, far down the length of the bridge inside a massive pair of shining gates. Inside one of those towers, he realized, Odin prepared for his return and assembled the Council for his trial.

Loki was torn from his thoughts momentarily as a group of heavily armed Asgardian troops marched forward to surround him. They walked in unison, each man's eyes on him and one hand resting on the hilt of a sheathed longsword. Thor didn't look up as he stepped past to allow the guards through; he was too angry, or ashamed. As he walked past he deliberately glared down at the bridge. Loki shot one more cold look at him anyways, and resumed subtly but desperately searching for a way out.

_Always a way out, always a way out, always a way out.._. Thor's scarlet cape flapped behind him; his grim face was shadowed by an erie blue glow let off from the object still in his hand...

_The Tesseract!_

Loki saw his chance- it was now or never. As Thor brushed roughly past and the guards moved forward, Loki suddenly lunged for it with all his might, startling them. Thor didn't realize it until it was too late. He spun around half a second too slow. The guards swarmed, drawing their blades and shouting angrily. The demigod's cuffed hands grasped the free end of Tesseract and he twisted the handle at random, not caring where it took him. Anywhere to escape this. And to escape them.

"Brother!? Don't–" started Thor, but they never heard him finish.

To his great relief, Loki saw Asgard begin to blur and felt the ground leave his feet.

But not before he felt the guard's sword enter his side.

**/ / / / / / **

**Please review and keep reading! XOXO -Hazel**


	2. A Storm's Coming

**Hi everybody! Thanks for all the favorites/follows...please review! Sorry this this is taking forever thanks for your patience... Soo here we go with my OC I told you all about...more to come soon.**

**Unfortunately, I still own nothing but my OC and the rest is Marvel's**

**/**

_"Jess!"_

"I'm _coming_." _Geez_. Jessica Marx slammed her beloved Dell laptop shut, and, shoving it into her backpack, left her bedroom to find the source of the voice. She looked around one more time to be sure she had absolutely _everything _important. It was going to be a long few months if she forgot something. She went through the contents of her suitcases in her head.

Satisfied, she glanced in the mirror that hung on her door, adjusted her sandy brown hair for the millionth time, straightened her jacket, and walked out to the waiting car. Her very frustrated mother sat in the front seat, and waved at her to hurry.

"Come on, Jess, we're going to miss your plane!"

_Wouldn't want that,_ she thought. But instead she said, "_Okay _mom, I'm coming," and got into the car.

"What's the weather supposed to be like today?" Jess said quietly. Though she didn't like to admit it, she was terrified of flying. She was at least hoping for decent weather, which meant a smoother flight.

"All clear, hon," her mother said as they sped off, "It's supposed to be beautiful all the way from here to Denver." Jess was excited to be staying with her best friend, Rachel, whom she hadn't seen in what seemed like ages. She tried to focus on that as she stared out the window at the airport growing closer.

"You'll be sure to call us, and let us know if you need anything?"

Jess had lost count of how many times her mother had asked this. Her father was going to start a new (temporary) job this summer far from home, only a few months after Jess' best friend had moved away. They had arranged for Jess to spend a few months with her friend's family in their new home, before both girls had to go back to school later in the fall. Meanwhile, her parents would rent a smaller place nearer to wherever her father worked. Her mother seemed afraid that Jess would drop dead the second her plane touched down in Colorado.

"Yes, I will. I'll be fine, mom."

"I know, just be safe. But have fun," Jess' mom said as they pulled up to the terminal. _Terminal. Funny how the name for where the airplanes are also means 'fatal'_, Jess thought. Her mom helped her unload her two suitcases and pulled her into a hug.

"Be careful, okay?" she said.

"Okay, mom," Jess replied quietly, hugging her mother back. "Love you."

"Love you too, Jess. You'll be fine."

Jess stepped inside the the airport, pulling her suitcases behind her. The ticket agent smiled as he took them to the group of checked bags and handed over her boarding passes. She forced a smile back, and walked off quickly.

When she finally made it to her gate, she sat down by the window, watching the planes take off and land while tapping her foot nervously. Jess tried to focus on Rachel, with little success.

_Oh well, at least the weather is good_, she thought as she was called forward to board. Her mom had been right- there wasn't a single cloud in the sky.

She glanced inside the cockpit as she stepped by. A middle-aged man and a younger redhead woman were writing furiously in their logbooks and checking various systems of the plane. Jess kept walking and finally selected a window seat near one of the over-wing emergency exits. She immediately slammed the shade shut.

One of the ridiculously chipper flight attendants walked up the isle, and, evidently noticing the look on her face, said, "First flight, sweetie?"

_Unfortunately, no_, Jess thought. "No, I'm fine."

"Okay, is there anything you would like to drink?"

Though she would have liked to answer the question very differently at the moment, she said, "Just a water." The flight attendant smiled, nodded, and continued walking up the isle.

Jess listened intently as they explained the "safety features" of the plane; she was looking between all of the exit doors the whole time. After a few minutes the crew sat down and the plane slowly made its way to the runway, where it then began to pick up speed. Jess gripped her armrest tightly and stared at the seat in front of her. _At least it's a short flight. Only an hour or so_, she thought as the plane lifted off the ground.

Soon after takeoff, she was informed that she was allowed to use electronics, so she put her earbuds in and listened to her iPod. After a few minutes she tentatively opened her window shade, only to slam it shut again at seeing the dizzying height. Jess closed her eyes for what seemed like only a few minutes, and had almost drifted off when she heard the captain's voice through her music.

_"Ladies and gentlemen, we are beginning our descent into Denver. Welcome and we look forward to serving you again."_

Jess hastily put away her iPod and organized her backpack, anticipating getting off the plane at last. No sooner had she finally decided she was prepared for landing than she heard the captain's voice again. This time, though, it had a different tone.

_"Ladies and gentlemen,"_ it began shakily, much easier to understand now that Jess wasn't listening to her iPod, _"We will need to ask you to now return to your seats and check that your seat belts are securely fastened. We seem to be approaching significant turbulence, and this is necessary for your safety."_The radio clicked off.

Jess sat frozen, hands clenched around her chair, trying to comprehend what she had just heard. _The weather was supposed to be perfect_, she thought, panic rising quickly in her throat. It had been perfect the last time she had sneaked a look out her window. She carefully checked again, and couldn't believe what she saw.

The sky around the plane was a beautiful shade of pristine blue, but what lay ahead was a different story. Fast approaching she could see what appeared to be a cloud, but is was forming too fast. Much too fast. Before her eyes, the black swirling mass gathered and grew larger and larger. She watched in frozen horror, and a few passengers around her murmured about it as well.

The pilots slowly turned the plane to skirt the "cloud", and she felt it shudder violently as it did so. Suddenly, a blinding blue flash, what must have been the strangest lightning Jess had ever seen, erupted from the cloud, jolting the aircraft so hard that they could hear the overhead bags crashing and the lights flickering and crackling. Jess, along with a few others, screamed.

For a while she cowered in her seat, shivering. But when she slowly turned to look out the window, she stared again in disbelief. The mass was gone. Just gone. It had disappeared as quickly as it had come.

**/**

**Hi people! What do you think of that?! Please review.. I have several other writing projects other than fanfiction and I want to get better so constructive criticism is good! so.. Sorry it took forever...hopefully next few updates coming faster, but homework sucks sooo...**


	3. Falling

**Hi everybody! Thank you so much to everyone who reads...and guess what?! I just got my first review! Thanks for all your support.**

**I still don't own anything :( its still marvels but maybe next time lol ;)**

/ / / / / /

Jess practically staggered off of the airplane. By some miracle she navigated her way from the gate, in a daze. At last she walked past security, and spotted her friend Rachel beaming at her from near the doors.

"Ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh!" Rachel squealed, running forward and squeezing Jess until she couldn't breathe.

"You're finally here!"

"Yeah," Jess said, sighing deeply with relief as she hugged her friend, "Thanks for coming to pick me up."

"No problem. My family's been gone on a trip and they won't be back for a few days, so it was, like, super boring all by myself. I was so excited when I found out you were coming!"

"Me too, you don't even _know_how glad I was to get here," Jess said as she released her friend and picked up her backpack.

"So how was your flight?"

_Why do people ask me this?_"Umm...it was really weird, actually."

"Oh. At least they have the planes flying again after what happened with those supposed aliens or whatever in Manhattan... What was so weird about it?" Rachel asked, the grin fading from her face.

"Well it was fine- but, like, there was like a huge storm right before we got here. And lightning. Lots of it all at once," Jess stumbled, trying to find the right words.

"Oh, sorry Jess. You know Jane says that airplanes are safe in lightning because they're not grounded, and even in storms the wings can take a lot of pressure," Rachel tried to reassure her friend.

_Why does Jane have to know everything?_

"It wasn't like that. This storm came in fast. Like really, _really_ fast. And then there was a bunch of lightning and then it was just _gone_."

"Well, you're not in Kansas anymore," Rachel laughed, hoping to cheer her friend up.

"Iowa," Jess corrected sarcastically, "But seriously, ask _Jane_about that storm. Even for storms here, it was seriously jacked up."

"O_kay_, I will. Let's get your bags and go back to my house. You'll love it!"

Jess followed Rachel to her car and they talked about Rachel's new Colorado home on the way there. She explained her family had gotten a nice big house, right on the edge of the mountains but not too far away from the city, either. She went on about her new home and school in Denver.

Jess had forgotten how good it was just to catch up with her friend. She half-listened as Rachel continued on about her house; her mind kept wandering off to her earlier experience with the "cloud". She tried to push it out of her head.

/ / / / / / / / / /

Deep in a grove of aspen trees near the edge of the mountains (but not too far from the city, either) two green eyes snapped open in the afternoon sun.

Loki lay, unmoving, for a while on the forest floor, taking in his current surroundings. His raven hair framed his face as he stared up at the foreign treetops and the cloudless sky beyond. He wasn't sure how long he had been here, or where_ here_was. It didn't seem like anywhere he had been in Asgard, so he counted his little plan as a success. It also appeared he was alone for the time being, so he decided to have a look around.

When he propped himself up on his elbows to sit, he noticed two things. First and foremost was the searing pain that shot up his side like fire the instant he moved, causing him to yelp and fall back down. He grimaced and rolled over on the ground.

_Right. The sword._ He would have to deal with that soon, he decided, as he clamped a hand over the wound to find it was bleeding profusely. Blood trails would be _bad_if someone came after him. Slowly, agonizingly, he dragged himself over to where he could lean against a tree.

That was when he noticed the second thing, still locked in his grip. Carefully reclining against an aspen, he unclenched his pale fingers and stared down at the object in his hand. It was a rounded metallic arc, attached to a circular plate along with a few fragments of glass. _A handle of the Tesseract_, he recognized. But the rest of it wasn't there. It looked as if it had shattered and snapped off during his journey to... wherever he was. But he was there. Which meant the Tesseract and the rest of its casing must be somewhere nearby. And he had a pretty good idea of who held the other half.

Loki turned the golden fragment over in his hands some more and finally set it down to focus on getting out of his shackles and gag.

/ / / / / / / / / / /

"... And Jess the view is _amazing_from there. Wait till you see what's up in the mountains. My cousin Jane keeps making me promise to let her come up here to stargaze sometime," Rachel said as they rounded another bend in the twisting neighborhood road that wound its way up to her house.

Jess was exhausted. Even though it was only afternoon she felt like she didn't want to take another step. She leaned against the window of Rachel's car. She was about to suggest that she spend the rest of the day sitting right where she was, when Rachel made another turn, and, for the third time that day, she couldn't believe what she saw.

/ / / / / / / / / / /

Loki remained leaning against the aspen tree, breathing heavily and sweating. The shackles had been easy enough to get out of, with some work and a little magic. But the metal mask that he'd been wearing proved much more difficult to remove. He'd finally pried it off, throwing it to the ground beside him at last.

He sat there for a while longer, catching his breath and pressing some torn fabric from his cape against his wound. He still didn't know exactly where he was, but from his surroundings he could make a guess..._Ugh_.

Nothing he saw seemed very familiar, but the voice he heard in the distance did. He became very still for a moment and listened, alert. It echoed through the trees again. The voice was calling for _him_. Coming for _him_. He needed to move, and fast. Already he could hear the source of the voice crashing through the forest, coming closer.

_Why in the name of all the realms...?_

Loki dropped the fabric he held to his side to grip the nearest tree. Carefully, painfully, he hauled himself up. Fire shot up his spine into his skull, and already he could feel the blood leaving his face. He stumbled a few steps, looking in vain for a place to hide. Loki fought his way forward through the trees, making a lot of noise as he went. Almost as much as his pursuer. He could tell it was catching up; Loki could feel his step and consciousness slipping and he collapsed, just as a pair of strong arms closed around him.

/ / / / / / / / /

**How was that? please R&R thanks! more updates coming soon**


	4. Picture Perfect?

**Hey everybody! I'm so excited to finally get this chapter up- it took forever but I had so much fun writing it- its my longest chapter yet! Please R&R! enjoy**

**only the OC's are mine...the rest is marvels**

**/ / / / / / / / /**

Rachel hadn't been lying- her new house was gorgeous. It was a wonderful home nestled perfectly into the side of the hill, painted a shade of golden yellow that would rival the aspen trees surrounding it. It was a spacious house built out of wood and stone, and Jess could see a deck peeking around from the back, too.

"Wow, Rachel, this place is great!"

"I know, I just love it here," she replied as she pulled up and parked her toyota in the driveway, "The backyard is even better, I'll have to show you after we bring your stuff in."

The two girls carried Jess' massive suitcases inside, panting as they hauled them over the front steps and then closing the front door behind them. They collapsed on the plush sofa and armchair in Rachel's living room, grinning at each other. _This is going to be sooo fun._

Jess looked around the inside of Rachel's house for the first time, and it was even better than in the photos she had sent. The foyer they had just walked through led directly to the large living room they sat in, which held an array of green plants and a cozy fireplace. Beyond that was a sitting room and the kitchen in the back, both featuring doors to the deck and several windows revealing the breathtaking mountain view beyond. Rachel led Jess through the foyer up a cedar staircase leading to a few bedrooms, an office, and a loft room upstairs.

"This one's mine," Rachel said, pointing inside the first bedroom she came to. Jess didn't even need to be told and tried to hide a smile; she knew only Rachel would have picked out _that_bedspread. The bed, dresser, and walls were such bright shades of blue, green, and pink they practically screamed at the girls as they walked in. The only exception was Rachel's desk, which was covered in textbooks, papers, and applications for the various nursing schools she was trying to get into.

"Aww, this is cute, it looks like your room back home," Jess said.

"Thanks," said Rachel, "Hey, let me show you the loft room too. I think its, like, super cool with its own TV and stuff, but like no one else ever uses it. You can stay in there!" Rachel clapped excitedly and dragged Jess down the hall to show her the loft.

/~/~/~/~/~/~/

Thor's rage disappeared immediately when he caught his brother as he fell. He set Loki down gently in the leaves; his brow creased and worry flooded his blue eyes as they took in his brother's condition.

He appeared to be unconscious, and badly wounded. As if his injuries from their earlier battle weren't enough, his green and black tunic was now stained with blotches of scarlet blood from a fresh wound. If possible, his face was paler than normal. Gods, he looked like a corpse.

_And I fear he shall be a corpse if he does not receive attention soon,_Thor thought.

While his original intention had been to track Loki down and recapture him, Thor decided that that would have to wait. His brother was in no condition to endanger anyone, and in fact he was now in significant danger himself. _He was trapped. In Midgard. Wounded._ Guilt clutched Thor's chest as he thought of all that had happened to Loki. He felt this was at least partially _his_fault- for stirring his jealousy; for losing him to the abyss; for not stopping the guard's attack...

There was something else there, too. He looked down at Loki- his childhood friend, today his opponent, but still his _brother_... Odin had eventually told Thor about Loki's true origin, of course, but to no one's surprise, Thor hadn't really been bothered by it. Even after all the things that had happened, Thor still considered Loki his brother, and still cared for him as a brother. It stung when Loki would jeeringly remind Thor that he didn't feel the same way.

_Why can he not understand this?_

/~/~/~/~/

"This is awesome, Rachel!" breathed Jess, flopping down on the futon, "This is just awesome! Thank you soo much for letting me stay here." She and Rachel sat together in the cozy loft room with its TV set, futon, and now Jess' empty suitcases; they had finally unpacked the last of their contents onto the shelves in the corner of the room.

"Thanks for coming, Jessie - I can't believe you get to live with _me! Here!_I mean, look at that," Rachel said, gesturing to the picturesque sunset over the mountains, which looked like something off of one of the postcards Rachel had sent.

"Wow," Jess said, leaning forward to look out the window for a minute. It was _beautiful_. She fell back on the futon, and felt she might just go to sleep right there when her friend said, "C'mon, I have to show you the rest of the house!"

"Huh?" she mumbled, opening one tired, chocolate-brown eye and giving Rachel a _can't this wait till tomorrow_ look, which she knew from countless sleepovers wouldn't work. When Rachel got excited about something, she _had_to do it.

"Yeah, you haven't even seen the deck or basement yet," Rachel whined, putting on her best sad puppy face. Jess crawled off the futon and Rachel towed her downstairs.

/ ~/ ~/ ~/ ~/~ /

Thor carefully stowed the parts of the Tesseract's casing against a boulder, in the clearing where Loki had first landed. He had decided the valuable Tesseract would stay with him for safekeeping, though he couldn't travel with it without the (now broken) casing it was normally held in. He then walked back to where Loki currently lay, and stared up at the dancing treetops in thought. He could tell that dusk was falling but his brother still had not woken, and his face clouded with worry. The peaceful Colorado sky quickly followed.

Thor stood over Loki's dishearteningly still body as the rain began to fall, and gripped the Mjolnir strapped to his wrist. While he disliked the idea of leaving him, Thor deemed it necessary to search where they had landed, hoping they weren't far from a Midgardian city.

He swung the hammer rapidly to his side, and then moved it over his head. The whirlwind created first snapped his blonde hair and scarlet cloak around him, and then lifted him off the ground completely.

Thor alighted on a limb near the top of the highest tree he saw, with surprising grace for someone his size. He scanned the horizon, his bright blue eyes taking in the landscape. They were definitely in Midgard, he confirmed. It also appeared that they were in a valley, judging by the mountains silhouetted on either side of them by the setting sun. He focused on one of them as he noticed something shining on the hillside. Actually, a small cluster of somethings.

_Electric lights_, Thor realized, staring at a group of glowing orbs that twinkled through the trees coating the mountains. The Man of Iron had tried to explain it to him once, and he was still trying to understand it. But that didn't matter. He knew that the Midgardians used the "electric lights" in their cities and residences.

_Shelter. Help_.

Thor flew down from the tree as easily as he had come, and landed back next to his brother. He carefully gathered Loki's body and the cube in his arms, and set off in the direction of the lights.

/~ /~ / ~/ ~/ ~/

"Woah," Rachel said as she flipped the light switch next to the glass door in the kitchen. In the time it had taken her to walk downstairs with Jess, the crystal clear sky over the deck had filled with a full-on torrential rainstorm.

"Well, um, I can still show you the basement, I guess," she said, not taking her eyes off the window.

"Okay," said Jess, also clearly uncomfortable with the sudden storm. The two girls turned and went downstairs.

Rachel's basement was just as impressive as the rest of her house. The cedar staircase ended near another set of plush leather furniture like that in the living room. It faced an elaborate home theater system and another cozy fireplace in the corner. A wooden door led to a path under the deck to the backyard. On the other side of the room, a ruby pool table took up most of the space, but there was enough room for a small bathroom and a thin table against the wall which held a multitude of board games and puzzles.

"Wow, this is like the coolest place ever," Jess exclaimed despite her grogginess. She walked over and absently ran her hand over the pool table, looking around the room.

"Thanks, Jessie," said Rachel, walking over to the couch, "We'll get to watch movies and play games and invite my friends to-" She stopped abruptly and turned to Jess.

Her excited chatter had been interrupted by a sharp knock on the wooden door. The girls looked at the door, then back to each other. _Who on earth would come to the back door at night in the middle of a storm?_

Whatever it was pounded on the door again, harder, more insistent this time. Rachel slowly got up, tiptoed across the room as quietly as she could, and pressed her ear to the door. There were no windows in the basement, so the girls couldn't see outside at all. They waited.

They both jumped back suddenly as someone knocked again, so hard Rachel thought the door might burst open and hit her.

When the knocking ceased for a moment, Rachel slowly stepped forward again, grasped the brass doorknob, and cracked open the door.

**/ / / / / / **

**Please R&R! More updates soon! I love all of you thanks for reading!  
**


	5. The God of Thunder

**Hi eveybody! Its good to see you again! I haven't been feeling great lately :( so I got to sit around and spend a lot of time writing this :) ...anyways, sorry it took forever but here it is...**

**everything but my OC's and their freaking awesome house in Colorado belongs to marvel**

** / / / / / / / / /**

The door creaked loudly as Rachel slowly inched it open and peeked outside. Her stare was met by a pair of very blue, very worried eyes. They belonged to a frighteningly tall figure, his grim (yet handsome) face and shoulder-length, dripping wet blonde hair revealed by the glow from an object in his arms. He also held another figure; paler, and leaner, but no doubt as tall and menacing as himself. Right now, however, the pale figure with hair blacker than the current sky was draped in the blonde one's arms, evidently unconscious. Jess crept up behind Rachel to have a look. Rachel didn't even have time to collect her thoughts when the blonde one spoke:

"I am Thor, Son of Odin of Asgard. I request to take shelter in these quarters at this time, for my brother is gravely wounded," he nudged the figure in his arms, "I fear for his safety and wish to provide him protection until he is well." The girls stared at the Asgardians. Thor stared back in silence, waiting for a response. The storm continued to rage outside, not filling the void in the doorway. Just when it was about to get awkward, Jess piped up from behind Rachel:

"Hey, it's that guy!"

"Huh?" Rachel said, tearing her gaze from Thor.

"That's the guy that was just on TV, Rachel. For the thing in New York. And also your cousin's friend Darcy put a picture of him on facebook a while ago."

"Darcy? Do you refer to Darcy Lewis of New Mexico?" Thor's brow knitted, putting two and two together.

"Yeah," Rachel said, "I mean, I've only met her once or twice. She's really my cousin Jane's friend." Thor's face brightened immediately. Jess raised an eyebrow as the rain was also reduced to a light shower immediately.

"You are kin of Jane Foster of New Mexico?"

"Yes..."

"It is him!" said Jess, still weirded out by their arrival but slightly relieved that it seemed to be yet another thing Jane would know what to do with.

"All right, erm, Thor, you can come in," said Rachel still rather uncertainly, stepping back from the doorway. He _did_ seem to know Jane, and his brother _was _injured...Still, she made a mental note to call Jane soon. Very soon.

"I thank you, Midgardians. I shall see to it my father rewards you upon my return." And with that, "Thor" walked inside and set the dark haired one down on the sofa, keeping the glowing object tucked under his arm and a silver hammer strapped to his wrist.

Rachel ran over to that side of the room, and was about to protest about their soaking wet clothes being on her couch, when she caught sight of the wound Thor had been talking about. Or rather, one of them. The other man's face was covered in cuts, and bruises were starting to appear. His armor (yes, he was wearing medieval armor) was scuffed and bent at the shoulders, and a thin layer of dust coated his clothes and raven hair. But the worst was a bloody gash along his left side; it looked very deep and his dark green clothing was stained a deep red in the area around it.

"Ohmygod, what happened to your, um, brother?" Rachel said, looking up from the pale man's body to ask Thor.

_She doesn't know_, Thor realized. He had been unsure of how willing the Midgardians would be to assist his brother, after what he had done.

"He was, um, involved in the battle in the land you call New York. As was I." There. It wasn't completely a lie; Thor had never been as good at lying as Loki. And the Midgardian seemed to buy it.

"Oh. So what happened there?" she asked, "It's been, like, all over the news on like every TV station, but they didn't get very much footage and no one seems to know what really went down. And the government obviously won't talk about anything."

_TV stations? Footage?_

After a moment Thor responded, staring solemnly into the human girl's eyes:

"I do not know if Midgardians are aware of this, but there are a multitude of realms beyond this world." He was immediately interrupted by Jess mumbling,

"So he _does _know Jane." Jane could talk about other universes for hours on end. Thor glowered impatiently and the thunder rumbled louder outside. Jess, starting to notice the correlation, did not interrupt him again.

"An army known by my people as the Chitauri, from beyond even these realms, was brought upon your planet. Your Midgardian government gathered a force to combat them, and, as I am sworn to protect this planet as well, my Father sent me here to join them. The Chitauri have been banished from this realm, and your planet is now safe. My brother, however, sustained wounds during and after this war in the land of New York."

"Well, um, thanks for helping us I guess," Rachel said, still struggling to believe this guy, who claimed to have just come from the incident in New York, and also said he was an alien. The way they were dressed, it might not have been such a far-fetched idea. "Is there anything we can do for you and your brother?" She looked down at Loki's pale form, still laying motionless next to where Thor stood.

"His wounds will take time to heal, and when he wakes he will require sustenance."

Jess stared at Loki doubtfully, "Um, Thor, this guy needs to go to the hospital. We can take you to one if you want."

"What is a 'hospital'?"

"Oh, its where the doctors are. They help people who are sick or injured and give medicine."

Thor's eyes widened as he remembered his own experience at a 'hospital'. He could only imagine how Loki would react to waking up there...

"_No_," he said vehemently. "My brother cannot travel to one of your 'hospitals'. Please believe me, Midgardians, when I say it would not conclude well for my brother or your doctors."

Rachel said, "Well, I'm going to go to a...doctor training school soon, and I'm telling you your brother needs help. He's bleeding and he needs to go to a hospital."

"No," said Thor loudly, standing protectively over Loki. The house shuddered as lightning struck nearby, splitting a small tree in half.

Jess leaned over to Rachel and said, "We should call Jane. She said she knew him. Maybe he'll listen to her."

"You are able to contact Jane Foster of New Mexico from here?" Thor's mood again seemed to soften slightly at her name, and now the possibility of contacting her.

"Yeah, I'll go get my phone," Rachel said, turning to walk upstairs. Jess followed her and grabbed her arm halfway up the staircase.

She whispered to Rachel, "What are we going to do with these guys if they don't listen to Jane? I mean, what do we say to your parents?" Jess mimed picking up a phone, "Hi, Mrs. Banks, how are you?...Oh we're doing fine...we've just let two strange men who claim to be aliens stay in your house too, one of which is bleeding all over your couch. How's your weekend going?...Uh huh... Wonderful...Love you too, bye." Jess hung up the imaginary phone and looked at Rachel questioningly.

Rachel bit her lip and glanced down at Thor, who was watching their conversation curiously, and was somewhat relieved that the threat of the 'hospital' had passed for the moment.

"I don't know, Jessie," she laughed nervously, "Haven't really planned that far ahead yet." She continued up the stairs to grab her phone. Jess stayed behind and walked back over to Thor and Loki.

"So, um, how did you get to know Jane, if you're, like, from another planet?"

"I had committed a terrible wrong in a faraway world known as Jotunheim, and my father, the King, cast me out from my realm as a punishment, so that I may learn," Thor gave a small smile, "And so I landed here, on your world. Jane found me, helped me learn from my mistakes, and showed me the good that can be found in mortals and myself. I was then able to reclaim my powers, and return to... aid the people of Asgard."

_Great, now they're aliens and criminals_. Just then Rachel bounced down the stairs, apparently with Jane already on the phone.

"_Yes_I'm telling you, he's here. Didn't you see it on TV?"

"No," Jane said, sounding mortified, "I-I haven't really been around a TV lately; this Shield group sent me off on some last-minute assignment. Is he okay?"

"Yeah, he said something went wrong and some brother of his got hurt, but he refuses to take him to a hospital."

Jane thought she could guess why. "Yeah, last I saw he wasn't a huge fan of hospitals. Can I talk to him?" Rachel handed the iPhone to Thor. He stared at it for a moment, and then, mimicking Rachel, held it to his ear. To his surprise and delight, Jane Foster's voice came out of it.

"Thor? Thor! What happened to you in New York? Are you okay? How did you get to Colorado?" Her voice was near frantic, something which was very rare for Jane.

Thor talked back into the box as Rachel had done. "Please do not worry for me, Jane. I have found safety in this realm with your friends. There has simply been a ... complication after leaving your planet, and we returned only to arrive in this land you call 'Colorado'."

"Okay, then who got hurt?"

"It saddens me to say that many Midgardians were wounded in this battle. They are being tended to by your government and law forces. I attempted to return to Asgard with my brother, Loki...however, my brother was wounded and we were sent back here, to Midgard."

"Wait a sec, Loki?_ Loki!?_"

**/ / / / / / / / /**

**I've started writing the next chapter but I won't be able to finish and post for a couple weeks probably because I have some important college tests coming up :( wish me luck hopefully I'll be back soon!**


	6. The Woman Of Science

**IMPORTANT A/N: Hey, guys! I'm so so so glad to be back...I know its been a while, but it was necessary. I feel like I did well on those college tests I had to take, and I also did my homework (both literal homework and reading up on how to write stuff like this). So now we're back in business :D **

**I know its been a long time, and I will admit I now understand this 'writers block' :P and there were even some people that tried to keep me from getting this done, but I just want you to know there is NO WAY I am leaving this story unfinished! **

**everything but my oc stuff is marvels :P**

/ / / / / / /

_Thunk. Thunk. Thunk._Thor paced back and forth around the basement, large hands clasped behind his back, jaw set, sapphire eyes staring at the ground, lost in thought. Of course he'd had to tell Jane Loki's ...role in the New York battle. The other two Midgardians, Jessica Marx and Rachel Banks of Colorado, had heard as well, but were more confused than upset and didn't seem nearly as concerned as Jane, whom had had experience with Loki before.

Jane had also realized immediately that her "last-minute, well-paying assignment" had only been a distraction to keep her _away_from Thor and the battle. She was absolutely furious. She had packed her notes and left the assignment without saying a word, and Thor made her promise not to "alert her government of his brother's presence."

To the other Midgardian girls' surprise, Jane agreed with Thor in that taking Loki to a hospital (or anywhere where he could be near humans or be recognized, for that matter) was a _very_bad idea. Thor explained that they were unable to leave her planet at the moment, because the Tesseract casing was broken and Loki was dead to the world. In the end, Jane decided to travel to Colorado to see Thor again and to try to fix the casing. She hung up, got on a plane, and mailed her Shield-issue electronics to Darcy's house in case they tried to track her.

And so Thor waited. Pacing, pacing. Once every few minutes, one of the two humans sharing the armchair would brave an irritated thunderclap to ask him another question: Where did you come from? What's the blue cube for? Who are the other 'Avengers'?

Under normal circumstances, he would have loved to recount stories to answer each of their questions, like he used to sit around a blazing fire with the other warriors, spinning tales of battles and monsters and faraway lands...

Tonight, though, he was in no mood for it. He wasn't sure he even knew what "normal" was anymore. So he gave them short, concise answers and went back to thinking - about Jane, about Loki, and about the questions he simply _couldn't_answer: Why did your brother attack our planet? Where is his army? What's going to happen when you go home?

Loki was a puzzle. Even before all of this had begun he had always been a puzzle. Just when Thor thought he had figured out a fraction of what went on inside his twisted mind, it would all change in an instant. It frustrated him to no end.

/ / / / / / / / / /

Jess sat on the armchair beside her best friend, as she had so many times before when they had lived just across the street. This time it was different, obviously. They sat in uncomfortable silence, watching the scene before them; neither one said a word. Jess couldn't think of anything _to_say. Even her usual sarcastic humor failed her. Her mind was spinning. They had only been there for a few minutes, but it seemed like hours and seconds at the same time. The only real measure of time was the steady beat of Thor's footfalls on the wooden floor.

Her eyes wandered from the tail of his ruby cape to his armor-clad broad shoulders to the mane of golden hair that surrounded his face. Even though she was kind of scared of him, and they had apparently just wrecked half of New York, Jess couldn't help but feel a little sorry for him. Here he was, a warrior, a god, trapped on a planet he'd just saved from his wounded brother who he seemingly cared deeply for but wouldn't even talk about. (They had given up on trying to convince him to take him to a hospital.)

"Hey, um, Thor," Jess said finally, "If you're not going to take, ah, Loki here to the hospital," he stopped pacing, but his eyes narrowed slightly at the word, "do you want us to do anything else?"

Thor considered this carefully. True, he had traveled here seeking assistance from the Midgardians, and so far they had been very kind to him and allowed Loki and himself to stay in their quarters. But he had not previously taken into account their relationship with Jane, which could be both a positive and negative thing. One one hand, Jane was a particularly intelligent and beautiful Midgardian woman that Thor was rather fond of. On the other, if Loki awoke and discovered this, he might just carry out those threats he made all that time ago on the Bifrost...

_But without help he may not awaken at all..._

It seemed that, as some humans might put it, Thor "got exactly what he wished for". _Loki would find this humorous._

"You possess means of healing my brother here?" he said slowly.

"Well, I think Rachel has, like, band-aids and basic medicine here, but I don't know how much we can do about _that_," Jess said, gesturing to the gash on Loki's torso which they had covered with another piece of his once-emerald cape.

After a moment's pause, Thor said, "Very well. I am most grateful that you offer to help me heal my brother. Do what you can, but I ask you to use caution. If he comes to he will likely not be... patient with Midgardians."

Jess tried to picture someone with a shorter fuse than Thor, while Rachel walked upstairs to see what she "possessed" to help the Asgardians.

/ / / / / / / /

_I'm crazy_, she thought, _It's finally happened. I've finally lost it._

Jane Foster (or Linda Greene, as her fake ID read) stood at the ticket counter, her posture quite similar to that of Jess when she had arrived in an airport only the previous afternoon. Her stiff, hasty strides and forced smile despite her nerves (though for a different reason) were like deja vu.

This was to be her _third_ connecting flight (as Shield had promised, her assignment had been _very_remote) and she was positively exhausted. Not like a late-night-experiment-so-drink-some-coffee tired, but more of a I-might-die-soon-if-I-don't-sleep tired. It was now (very) early morning only the day after the attack on New York, and she hadn't stopped thinking about it since she had gotten off the phone with Thor.

As much as her body wanted to collapse beneath her, Jane refused to close her sleepy hazel eyes. She constantly looked over her shoulder in the airports and studied the passengers around her on the planes, sure that Shield was following her somehow.

She had guessed they would, but decided getting to Colorado was important enough to risk it.

_Colorado. _

_Rachel's house._

_Thor._

_...Loki._

She considered the fact that she was possibly losing her gifted little mind, going all this way to help _Loki_. The _enemy_. Jane reminded herself it was mainly to help Thor, but that didn't eliminate the Loki element.

She had only seen a few pictures of him and of course Thor's descriptions, but already she found him terrifying. They had all seen what he was capable of in New York...and in what he had done to Eric. What could he do to her? To her friends? And what if Shield found out about this? Jane didn't like how this was looking, even with Thor in the equation.

Particularly in the equation with a certain extremely reactive, unstable element.

/ / / / / / /

**Hey so how was that? Please R&R! tests are done and I've been trying to get ahead so more updates coming soon!**


	7. The God of Mischief

**Hi everyone! so glad to be back...thanks for all the follows, favs and reviews! I hope you're all doing great and this is like the longest chapter yet so enjoy!  
**

**everything but my OC's is still marvels...but I'm starting to like Loki lol  
**

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The two humans and one Asgardian sat around the coffee table, in front of the couch where Loki lay. On it they had piled whatever they could find - bandages, first aid tape, Advil, thermometers, salve, and one of Rachel's medical textbooks. She flipped through it quickly, skimming for anything that might be useful. Thor peered over her shoulder uncertainly, while Jess picked through their sparse supplies. By now it was in the small hours of the morning, but no one wanted to go to sleep anymore.

"Okay, um, it says here we should try to stop the bleeding and, like, clean the cut. And he'll probably need stitches," Rachel said, never looking up from her textbook. No one moved so much as an inch, hesitant to touch Loki: Rachel, because she was afraid he would wake and attack her, and Thor because he was afraid he would find Loki was already gone.

Finally Jess stood up and huffed, "I'll do it then," she walked around the coffee table and knelt next to the sofa. Thor followed her, gripping Mjilnor, not sure whether he did so to guard Jess, Loki, or both. Jess carefully pulled back Loki's tunic, revealing a gash beneath, where a sword had found a chink in the armor. A shred of his cape served as a compress over the wound.

Jess gasped a deep breath. There was a _lot _of blood. She could _smell_the salty-sweet scent of it in the air when she inhaled. Carefully, delicately, she pulled the ruined fabric away and dropped it into a waiting trash bag on the floor. She gathered a clean rag in her other shaking hand and, reminding herself that Thor was just behind her, reached over and began to gently dab the blood off Loki's armor.

At once he hissed in pain and jerked away, causing Jess to yelp in surprise and jump backwards into Thor, who, despite the reason for Loki's waking, breathed a sigh of relief.

~ / / / / / / / / / /~

He was flying. Or falling. He couldn't tell.

_Where am I?_

It was dark dark dark and Loki was only aware of a sharp, fiery pain in his side, and the sound of someone far away - screaming. _Who? _Fear tightened his throat with its invisible hand that he almost never felt... Surely this time the Other had found him, and surely He intended to kill him - quickly if he was lucky. Loki coiled like a spring and wrenched his eyes open.

The fuzzy blackness slowly faded away, and he found himself facing not the horrible, mangled form of the Other, nor Thanos' terrible, cruel grin. Instead he peered right into a pair of perfectly normal, large brown eyes. As the world came back into focus he saw they belonged to a startled-looking young woman. A _human _woman. He stayed tensed as the memory of his last conscious hours crashed down upon him.

~/ / / / / / / / /~

For a minute they just stared at each other, Jess recovering from her scare and slowly returning to her original position next to the couch, studying Loki with a mixture of interest and fear. He had frozen in mid-recoil; his bright green eyes, glazed with pain and fear, never left hers. It seemed to take him a while to register that she wasn't a threat.

"Brother!" Thor breathed, fighting to contain his relief. Loki seemed to notice him for the first time, and Thor could see him putting the pieces together as his eyes drifted from Thor's face... back to Jess'...and finally landed on the bloodied rag in her hand.

Jess shifted uncomfortably. "Hey, um, Loki, it's okay; we're not going to hurt you. I was just trying to fix your-"

Loki's eyes narrowed, and his voice came across low and cold, "You think _you_ could harm _me_? Who do you think you _are_, mortal? Your kind should _kneel _before me and you dare believe that-"

_This guy just tried to take over the world, got his ass whipped, and now we try to help him and he insults me? Really_? Jess sarcastically informed him that she was in fact already kneeling.

Loki was silent for a moment, and he relished the human's discomfort and the instant regret he could see in her eyes. He leaned closer, hiding a grimace, and continued, his icy voice barely above a whisper.

"Are you _mocking_ me, mortal? How _dare_ you _touch _me; how dare you _speak_ to me that way, I ought to-"

"Loki," Thor said loudly. This was exactly what he had been afraid of; Loki had only been awake for two minutes and already he was on the verge of threatening murder, "Do not quarrel with these Midgardians. They mean no trouble and only offer to aid you, at my request."

_Ah, Thor has set them to this. So we're still playing the that game. Magnificent_. Loki turned his scathing gaze on Thor, "I do not _require_ your 'aid', Thor, nor do I require your _permission_ to reprimand this mortal, this _insect_." He could see the conflict on Thor's face, and knew he must be thinking of that other Midgardian woman he favored. How he _loved _this game.

Thor stared him down but (barely) managed to keep his temper in check. "Do not mistake my tolerance for weakness, brother," he said evenly, "If you bring any harm to these Midgardians I _shall _turn you over to their government, and they shall not be so merciful as Father or I."

As much as Loki wanted to deny it, some logical part of him saw that Thor was right; he was pushing his luck and he knew it. He was in no condition for another war with the mortals: he was wounded, he was short an army, and as far as he knew they were _not_ short a Hulk. _So be it, Thor_, he thought, _I have nothing but time_. If they were willing to hide him from the Midgardians for the time being, there was no reason to leave immediately. The Other wouldn't know where he was, and Odin would probably find out but couldn't come after him anytime soon because he'd drained so much energy sending Thor (whom he would have to put up with for the time being).

_All right then, I'll play nice. For a while_. Loki leaned back on the couch, drew his mouth into a tight line, and glared into Thor's eyes, "Very well, Thor. I will not bring harm to your Midgardian _friends_." _Let him think he's won._

"And do not refer to me as 'brother' again."

Thor looked stung, and this time Loki didn't bother to hide his satisfaction. Jess watched the exchange from her position in between them, trying to make sense of it. Loki then turned away from Thor and studied her. She was young, pretty enough (_for a mortal_), with big brown eyes that looked eager to please and somewhat fearful. _Pathetic._

"Then...Loki, I shall respect your wish but do not conclude that I care for you as any less. You have wronged, but so have I. And I will not have you lie here in pain for it."

"Well, get on with it then. Apparently Odin wants me alive," Loki growled sarcastically at them, and settled back on the couch and stared at the ceiling. Jess looked at Thor, hoping for an explanation. Thor instead looked down at Loki sadly and sighed. It seemed to Jess like he was used to this lashing out, but couldn't take much more of it. Clearly they had some issues, and this guy knew exactly where to hit him.

~/ / / / / / / / / / / /~

The hall echoed with the slapping of a pair of heels as Agent Hill strode through, barely keeping herself from breaking into a run. The file tucked neatly under her arm felt as if it were made of lead. She kept her eyes trained on the door ahead, and didn't bother to knock when she reached it; he most likely already knew she was there.

She entered the small, plain office, which was coated with a layer of papers of information related to the attack on Manhattan, ironically. The floor was black and a large wooden desk placed against one wall took up a lot of the room. She approached the man who sat at the desk and handed off the file.

"I'm afraid this is urgent, sir, if this means what we think it means," she said as he skimmed through the report in the file. He glanced up at her after a minute with his one good eye.

"When did this come in, Agent Hill?" Nick Fury asked, paging through the report.

"We picked up the energy signal a few hours ago, sir. It matched the one from when Thor dropped in the first time, and the ones from... recent events."

Agent Fury nodded vaguely and continued reading the file, "Can we contact Miss Foster about this?"

"She's gone, sir. Left her assignment just after that signal was picked up. We're working on her location, sir, but she's covered her tracks pretty well."

"I don't think that's a coincidence. I want an investigation on this, Hill, right away."

"Yes, sir."

~/ / / / / / / / / / / /~

Jess looked at the thermometer again: _92.8 degrees F._

"Um, at least he doesn't have a fever," she said at last. Thor didn't seem to understand her concern about this, and took it as a positive thing and nodded.

Loki snorted. Perhaps he should have tried to make a break for it earlier; the humans here were even more irritating than he'd thought. He had grudgingly allowed them to bandage the stab wound, and now they insisted on checking to see if he had an 'infection', despite his protests that illness was for pathetic mortals. He also had reasons that he couldn't explain for refusing the stitches, but Thor seemed confident that Asgardians, particularly ones with some magic, could heal fast enough even without them. _However, Thor feels confident about a lot of things..._

When he seemed satisfied with Loki's condition, he thanked the Midgardians again for their 'assistance' while Loki glowered at the floor. Rachel took the opportunity to point out that it was almost four in the morning, and as weird as this was she was going to bed. The girls decided to allow them to spend the night 'because Jane was on her way'.

Loki remained on the couch, while Thor thanked the Midgardians yet again and settled into the armchair facing him, his face unreadable. The blonde girl exchanged a look with the other mortal, and walked up the stairs, shaking her head. But the other one hung back, and walked over to the sofa.

"Hey, um, sorry I snapped at you earlier," Jess said quietly. He glared at her and finally gave a curt nod.

"You would do well to learn not to do that again, mortal."

She looked disappointed by this response, and in reality it took a lot of her self control not to snap at him again for that one. _The nerve of this guy.._. But Thor had cautioned them against provoking him, so she just nodded back and said, "My name's Jess," and turned and walked upstairs.

**/ / / / /  
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**Huh so what do you think? I'm glad Loki's back and I tried showing his thoughts this chapter but as Banner put it 'his mind is a bag of cats'. Oh well I tried lol ;) R&R more soon!  
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	8. Magically

**Hi people! I missed you and writing this story so I worked for a while to get this chapter up. This is the revised version of the chapter because I wasnt happy with the old one that I wrote at 2 am and some other people found it confusing too. I think the additions in this version make it better and hopefully help it flow into future chapters better too. **

**I love FrootLoops, Lucky Charms, and marvel's avengers but unfortunately I own none of them.  
**

**/**

Rachel awoke early, when her iPhone alarm went off to notify her to pick up Jane at the airport. (_Jane!_) As she dressed and walked from her room, part of her wondered if yesterday had all been a dream. It all seemed too bizarre for reality.

She passed the doorway to the loft and noted that Jess was sound asleep in there on the futon, so at least the part about her coming to visit had to be real. She slipped on her shoes downstairs, and was about to walk out the door when she decided to look in the basement, just to know for sure.

She was almost a little surprised to find that the two men were really there. The injured one was still lying on the sofa, breathing softly; the other 'Thor' guy that Jane liked was slouched in the armchair, snoring rather loudly. _Charming_.

Rachel crept back upstairs quietly and left for the airport, all too aware of the fact that her parents were coming back in just a few days - and she had absolutely no clue what to tell them.

/ / / / / / / / / / /

_45 minutes-ish later_

/ / / / / / / / / / /

_Thor. Loki. Loki. Thor. Odin. Asgard_. Jess sat on the futon for a while, going over the previous night in her head. She _knew _ she had heard those names before. _Where_? She finally hauled herself out of bed and dug her laptop out of her backpack.

A quick Google search brought up mostly results relating to Norse mythology, with some rumors of Thor's involvement in the New York incident. No one seemed to know much about Loki except that he lied and caused trouble. _Okay...so either they're Norse gods or completely insane. Or both. Probably insane_. Then again, Jane and Darcy had also thought Thor was just crazy, until he conjured a tornado and flew off to another dimension. _And their wounds from battle are definitely real..._

Jess snapped the laptop shut and plodded out into the hallway. She saw Rachel was gone, presumably to pick up Jane, and continued down the wooden staircase in her pajamas. She was a little unnerved that Rachel had left her alone in the house with two strangers that were also probably crazy. _Well, Jane seems to trust them. Or at least one of them_. She walked through the foyer and spotted the man that had arrived last night standing in her kitchen, looking out the back window.

And she didn't blame him. The sky had cleared; now the golden sun shone through and illuminated the endless forest that was draped over the mountains as far as she could see. Only a faint breeze caressed the trees, as if apologizing for the abuse they had received during the storm.

Thor heard her footsteps as she approached, and turned to face her. He smiled through a mouthful of FrootLoops and set the box down on the kitchen table.

"Good morning, Jessica Marx! I was just admiring your realm's landscape. It is most appealing."

"Yeah, it looks really pretty today. Good morning. Would you like some milk for those?"

Thor shook his head and scooped another massive handful of cereal from the box. "Your Midgardian cuisine is delicious as it is, and I really mustn't tarry too long. It is unwise to leave my brother unattended for a great while."

"Oh, right. Would he like some breakfast too?"

"Most likely not. I attempted to convince him to eat earlier, but alas he will not listen to me. He did this with his magic when I spoke too forcibly with him," Thor pointed down to a small hole in his scarlet cape (that had narrowly missed him) that had been singed black...with some magic, apparently. _Magic?_

Thor was quite relieved that Loki seemed to be recovering, but he was still refusing many of his further attempts to help. Since childhood Loki had been quiet and calculating, but also fiercely independent and determined to prove himself. Evidently this had changed none of that. While the Midgardians' aid had most likely helped heal Loki's wound, it had most _definitely_ hurt his pride.

"I did not wish to quarrel with him, so I came up here for a small time to allow him space. But we should see to it that he receives sustenance soon." Thor looked down at her hopefully. Jess glanced back at the burnt spot. She definitely didn't want _that_ to happen to her, as she did not have Thor's reflexes or armor. But she also knew it must have been hard for him to be unable to talk with his own brother. It had certainly been hard for her whenever she and Rachel had had a fight, even when they were little... And she had to admit when Loki wasn't threatening to kill someone he was interesting, and she was curious to see how he was faring.

"Um, alright, I'll go see if he wants anything," Jess opened the pantry and grabbed another box of cereal and some fruit. "There's some more food in here if you want it," she added, even though he hadn't waited for an invitation before anyways.

He seemed wary but thanked her and promised to come if trouble arose, not wanting to provoke more himself. She walked downstairs as quickly and quietly as she could with her arms full, beginning to question her previous thoughts about Loki. _What if he's still angry? What if he shoots at me too? Please, please let him have gone back to sleep_. Though Jess doubted it, she could still hope, right? She was more than a little scared to go near him, and wasn't even sure what she would do if he attacked her.

She reached the bottom of the stairs and, in dismay, saw that her prayers had not been answered. She could see the back of his raven-haired-god head over the back of the couch; he had propped himself up on one elbow and was focused intently on something she couldn't see. Jess took a deep breath and walked over to the coffee table on the other side of the sofa.

And almost dropped the pile of food she was carrying.

The bloodied remains of the leather shirt Loki _had_ been wearing were folded on top of the neat stack of his armor next to the couch. He had carefully peeled away the bandage that wrapped around his wound, and now sat perfectly still with his hand hovering a few inches above his bare pale skin. And out of his fingertips flowed a gentle, steady stream of...Light? Sparks? _Magic._

And whatever he was doing, it was working. The pale blue, pulsing stream was flowing over the wound, and now it was looking more like he had been stabbed with a large kitchen knife rather than a longsword. Jess stared in shock. She was pretty sure salve and advil couldn't do that overnight. _So Thor really meant it when he said he had magic. At least he's not using it on me...Geez he might have mentioned he could heal himself when we tried to help him...Should I talk to him?_

"Is there something about which you would like to speak with me, or do you intend to stand there gaping like one of your disgusting fish for the rest of your miserable life?"

Jess was jolted out of her thoughts and started, but Loki didn't even look up. He had been at this since Thor left and this _insolent mortal_ had almost broken his concentration. Even if she hadn't been around, he could feel the tingling in his hand and knew he couldn't keep this up much longer. He dropped it to his side with a frustrated _hmph_ and let the stream sputter and die. (As it would have soon anyways, but of course he couldn't have them knowing that.) _At least it's improvement_. Loki began to carefully rewrap the wound, noting with satisfaction that it was not so painful as the first time.

Jess shook her head quickly. "No, no, I just, never saw anyone do magic like that before. That's amazing."

_Well, at least someone appreciates it. Too bad it's only a human girl._

"Oh, and I brought you some food," she set the cereal and fruit on the coffee table and slowly backed away like it was some sort of offering, being very careful not to stare at him again. He seemed amused by this.

"Your show is entertaining, human, but you can tell Thor I've no need of your mortal peasant food."

"It's not peasant food. Look, it's Lucky Charms," she held the box out, "They're magically delicious," she said jokingly.

"Mortals don't even have magic," he shoved it back onto the table.

"Never mind. It's a cereal. Thor was eating cereal upstairs, too."

"Thor would eat a mule if that's what was available."

"Fine. Starve if that's -" Jess was interrupted by the croak of the garage door opening noisily overhead. Loki jumped a little and raised an eyebrow at her questioningly.

"Oh, Jane must be here."

Jess was glad for this excuse to leave the room when his current expression of frustration with her split into a terrifying smile.

**/ / / / / /**

**Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving holiday! New chapters soon - it may not seem like it but I have a general idea planned out (but I'm still working out specific plot lol). Please review it is wonderful to get reviews and advice and stuff!  
**


	9. Of the Fourth Kind

**Hi again! heres a new chapter and I don't know if you saw but I UPDATED THE LAST CHAPTER so make sure to read the A/N that says its version 2 before you read this one. **

**You know I'm kind of glad this story is turning out way longer than I thought because its fun and now I've planned an ending! I'll be royally pissed if the Mayans were right and the world ends before I'm done with it. It would be way cooler if the Norse were right and Loki came to bring Ragnoranok or whatever its called. **

**i don't own anything marvel. i really should look into that house in colorado though.**

**/ / / / / / / **

"Agent Hill, excellent to see you. We've been working on Miss Foster's location."

Hill stopped walking and turned to the two analysts perched next to the computer. _Finally, some progress_. "And?"

"Well, we started by tracking the chip implanted in her cell, and the last known use of it was on her assignment. We've been watching its movement for the last few hours, and it ended up on one Darcy Lewis' doorstep. Of course we sent agents to search the place, but no sign of her. This was no accident, Agent Hill. She's trying to throw us off."

"What about the signal match in Colorado?"

"I was getting to that. We got coordinates on it just before you came in, and Director Fury sent a team out to investigate. They're on their way now."

"Good. I want updates on that as soon as they arrive."

"Yes, sir - erm, m'am."

Hill smiled and continued through the base to her office.

_/ / / / / / / / /_/

"Thor!" Jane squealed as she stepped inside. She dropped her bag in the doorway and raced into the kitchen. Thor looked as happy as anyone had seen him so far as he scooped her up into a his massive arms. He held her for a minute, planted a kiss on her forehead and returned her to the floor.

"Jane! I am so relieved to see you here! Are you well?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Can't believe Shield tried to pull something like that on me, though. Again. I'm so glad to see you, too. Is everything okay?"

"Do not worry yourself, Jane. We are doing well here with your friends. They have been very hospitable and my brother has promised to bring no further harm to Midgardians for the duration of our stay here. I also believe that with their help he is beginning to recover."

"Well, he still doesn't want food, but, you know, his magic seems to work just fine," Jess said sarcastically as she emerged from the basement stairway.

"Ah. Well, thank you for offering it to him. Please forgive his attitude of late. He has not been like this for millennia, but he's had a bit of a trying time - in part because of me. He did not turn his magic on you, Jessica Marx, did he?"

"No, I'm fine. He was just using it to heal faster, I think. Hi, Jane!"

"Hey, Jess," Jane turned back to Thor, "So, what happened with Loki and the Tesseract? Why couldn't you go home? Not that I mind your being here, of course," she said with a smile and a blush.

"Neither do I, dear Jane, but it is necessary to remove my brother from Midgard and return him to Asgard, I'm afraid. He used the Tesseract to transport himself back here, but it was damaged during the journey. He was also badly wounded by one of his guards who tried to prevent his escape," he frowned slightly.

Thor removed his arm from its resting place around her shoulders to reach behind them and retrieve an object from the kitchen table. Jane's eyes widened when he returned with the Tesseract held out to her. She took it delicately in her hands, turning it over and over, examining its crystal blue, luminous surface. _"Impossible..."_

She immediately understood why Loki had wanted it. It promised previously unimaginable possibilities. It was every aspirer's dream and any opposition's worst nightmare. What a wonderful twist this was: Shield had taken every bit of her research on this from her, yet now it was she who held the key to all of it in the palm of her hand. She could feel it radiating power; her fingertips prickled with the pulses of energy swirling inside the cube's seemingly endless depths.

A tesseract, by definition, was a four-dimensional cube, she knew. Yet Jane could see this object was a normal three-dimensional cubic shape, only a few inches on each side. _How_? On the inside, it was unlike anything she had ever seen before. It was circulating and flowing as if the stars themselves were dancing within it. Which they very well could have been. She wondered how so much energy could be contained in such a small space and still remain stable.

The group stared at it in awe, and Thor carefully took it back and placed it gently on the table, "I can see you understand it is an object of great power, Jane. However, we cannot safely harness this power without its holding chamber, which remains in a valley not far from this residence, where my brother arrived."

"So we have to, like, hike out there and get it?" Rachel asked, picking Jane's bag up and carrying it the rest of the way in.

"I have been considering th-" Thor was interrupted by an earsplitting _CRACK_from beneath their feet, as if he had hit something again with his lightning - which he was certain he had not. They all froze for a moment.

_Oh no_, Jess thought. They had completely forgotten that Loki had been left alone all this time, they had been so focused on Jane and the cube. _What has he done?._.. She saw Thor turn and barrel down the basement stairs, Mjolnir in hand. Jess and Rachel ran after him, reluctantly followed by Jane, who snatched up the Tesseract first in case it was just a trick for them to leave it unguarded.

_/ / / / / / /_/ /

Loki frowned at his palms._ That was certainly not what I intended to happen_. He turned his pale hands over and snapped his fingers again, examining them. He was particularly frustrated and impatient because he had again been attempting to use even a little magic and was still unable to get it to work properly. _Perhaps that is the curse of possessing one's own magic_, he thought,_ If I am harmed, so goes this sorcery._

He wouldn't have traded it for anything, though. While Odin could strip Thor of his powers, he had no ability to do so completely to Loki: his magic had been learned, not given to be taken away.

At the moment, though, it felt like a part of him was missing; no matter how he focused it would always slip away at the last moment.

Loki heard the group of humans and Thor racing down the stairs._ Of course_. He expertly plastered a smug look on his face, as if he were happy with his attempt to transfigure whatever the Jessica girl had left him into something more appetizing and was not at all discouraged that he had also succeeded in charring the coffee table to a blackened, smoldering crisp.

"Loki!" Thor thundered as he reached the bottom of the stairs, "What is the purpose of this?"

"Mmm?" Loki looked up from his (altered) meal at Thor's enraged face with mock interest. _Such a delightful game._

Thor almost collapsed with relief that his brother had not done anything malicious or (at least not intentionally) destructive. _All the same, this cannot continue. He must return to Asgard before he does do anything against this world again_. Thor knew he had promised not to, but Loki never kept promises for long. It was a matter of time. He kept his face as neutral as he could when reminding his brother of the agreement.

Jess could tell by watching their exchanges that Loki was playing with Thor, and having some fun doing it. _Or maybe that's just how he wants it to come off; Thor said they didn't see eye to eye on a lot of things, and that seems to be an understatement._

At the same time, Jane, hiding behind Thor and holding the Tesseract, was also growing increasingly worried about Loki's being on Earth. She was an astrophysicist, not a psychologist, but she could tell that Thor's "mind yourself"s and "this is no adequate conduct for a prince ('_KING!'_) of Asgard"s were only fueling Loki's hatred and rivalry toward him. Which would no doubt fuel his desire to do something else, which would in turn cause Thor to scold him again.

Jess seemed to also be following her train of thought as well, so Jane tapped on Thor's shoulder and frowned. He ceased talking to Loki at last and turned to put an arm around Jane, who was looking downright terrified, all the time staring daggers at his brother.

"Why thank you, dear Jane. I was beginning to grow quite bored," Loki said with his silky, sarcastic voice and a smile that was neither thankful nor endearing.

Jane shifted uncomfortably, now almost completely assured that coming here had been a mistake. _At least Thor's here. Maybe now that he has the Tesseract he can come back through the Einstein-Rosen bridge again without -_

That was when Loki caught it. Delicately balanced in the Midgardian's trembling hands was, of all things, the cube. It was the first he had really seen of it since his trip from Asgard, and he was immensely relieved it was still intact after their fall. But of course he couldn't let that show, for Thor would guess what he intended to do with it...oh, really, what _couldn't_he do with it?

_But alternatively, what couldn't the Other do with it? Thanos_? Loki thought over the possibilities while glaring at the cube as if he wished to burn a hole in it.

"The Tesseract is not under you control, Loki, and we shall retrieve its casket to return you home. Until then it is under my protection and of no use to you," Thor said evenly.

_He has no idea._

**/ / / / / / /**

**So Shield's on the move, Jane's either overjoyed or petrified, Thor's in a difficult spot, Jess doesn't know what to think, and Loki's still injured but all too ready to plot something! and the tesseract, the tesseract! what could happen next? Duh duh duh... REVIEWS!**


	10. Pride & Perquisition

**Hi! Hope everyone had a good holiday - I had a lovely break but I'm back now! The world did not end!**

**I decided that the scene in this chapter was long and it would be better if I split it up, so the next chapter will probably come in the next few days with this scene completed. If I need to I'll combine them later but for now they're separate.**

**Also have to go back to school in a few days :P**

**Everything but OC stuff is marvel's**

**/ / / / / / / / / / /**

Did they truly have no idea? What was possible, especially with the power they held? It certainly seemed so, Loki mused as he watched the mortals buzz about whatever doubtlessly trivial tasks they had set themselves to. After his unfortunate magical mishap and resulting spat with Thor, who hadn't left Jane's side, Loki had elected to sit silently on the sofa and observe them for a while. He blocked the ceaseless throbbing in his side from his mind by mulling over ways to acquire the Tesseract, and possible courses of action should he obtain it. Unfortunately, all of them involved using his magic, which wasn't responding very well to his being wounded.

Another issue, he realized, was the Tesseract being so powerful. The best thing and the worst thing about the Tesseract was that it was, as Thor had pointed out to his woman earlier, "an object of great power." And if you had one, people wanted it. Loki knew because he was as guilty of this as anyone (or perhaps even _slightly_ more so).

He had been chosen to take Earth for the purpose of retrieving the Tesseract and handing it over to the Other (which of course he'd had no intention of doing at all, but things hadn't quite gone as planned). As much as it pained him to admit it, even to himself, he knew that if he couldn't keep the cube from a bunch of mortals and one Asgardian, he _certainly_ couldn't keep it from the Other, who was also likely plotting his demise at this very moment. Running off with the Tesseract would be like handing him a sword to deal the blow. And he was positive it would not be so quick as with a sword. The safest place for the Tesseract was without a doubt Asgard, for he was the only one he knew of who had gotten past its defenses so far. But if he ever went back to Asgard he was certain the only part of it he would see would be his prison cell...

"Loki," Thor's deep voice shook him from his thoughts, and he glanced upward at his 'brother', his face deceptively blank, "We shall have to retrieve the Tesseract's casket today, for Lady Jane fears her government friends seek her out. As much as you anger me at this time, I cannot bring myself to allow them to punish you, brother. Justice must be served, but I shall at very least leave you at Father's great mercy. That I promise you," Thor said resolutely, but Loki suspected he was reassuring himself more than anyone.

"How sweet. And by _your_ Father's 'mercy', do you refer to when he kidnapped me, or when he dropped me into an abyss?" he replied coldly.

Thor felt on the verge of something between trembling with rage and sobbing. The rage usually won.

"He did _NOT do such things_! And we are not discussing this at this time, brother, for that is a matter between you and Father. I shall return you home to him, and to do that I need the cube, so we shall go to retrieve its casket."

Thor sighed and calmed down a bit, " Are you well enough to walk a distance?"

He glared and said "yes" automatically, even though he knew he wasn't. Thor had walked away from battles with some particularly nasty wounds as if it were nothing, and Loki wasn't about to keep letting him show him up, even now._ At least it would be a respite from whatever dumb mortal's cellar I'm stuck in_.

Thor nodded sternly and walked back over to where the Midgardian females were huddled around a shelf against the wall, picking through rows of books and objects he didn't recognize. He spoke to them quickly about using the Tesseract and casing, and two of them nodded enthusiastically in agreement. Jane even promised to try to fix it at once when they got it back. _How surprising_.

The third one glanced back at him, cocking her head to the side curiously, before turning away to listen to whatever Thor was saying.

**/ / / / / / / / / **

Jess held the demigod's gaze for a moment before dropping hers. For the millionth time she wondered what flew through his head; his carefully expressionless face didn't hide the anger and pain in his emerald eyes.

She looked up as Thor finished explaining the Tesseract to Rachel and describing where the grove was from her house. Rachel admitted she didn't think she had ever been there before, but the valley he described didn't sound too far away, so it was worth a try.

Thor nodded and walked back to where he had set Mjolnir next to his leather chair. Of course he would have preferred to fly back and get the casing, but he couldn't leave Loki alone with the Midgardians for that long (and he had a feeling Loki wouldn't be as enthused about being flown around as Jane was).

**/ / / / / / / / **

"Control to StarSeeker. Control to StarSeeker. Copy?" The transmission came through static as the agile quinjet swooped lower into the fog-shrouded mountains. Its copilot reached for his earpiece to respond.

"Read Control. Go ahead."

"GPS readings indicate you're entering the edge of the projected search area. Keep an eye out."

"Copy. Streaming video feeds now. Over." _Like there was anything to see. Probably just scared after Manhattan.._. The pilot heard the radio click off and checked the controls and cameras as he had been told. Shield had only briefed him on parts of this mission, and he didn't think there was anything _really_ going on at all. But Director Fury must have, or he wouldn't be flying a jet full of some of Shield's best special ops through mountains thousands of miles from the Manhattan disaster area where he'd thought they'd have been more urgently needed...

**/ / / / / / / / /**

Loki sat back down on the couch and tentatively pulled back the bandage that wrapped the wound on his torso. It was still bleeding some, but not as badly as before, at least. _A trickle rather than a flow_. For the last few minutes Thor had been outside with the mortals pointing out where the valley was from their deck, and Loki had been practicing standing up and walking around the room without passing out.

And so far it was going just _swimmingly_. He was lightheaded from the pain and blood loss, but decided he could manage._ After all, did Thor not manage to throw me off a building and wage a war after I stabbed him in a similar way_? He felt the anger bubbling in his throat and pushed the thoughts of Thor away, just as the basement door creaked open and one of the mortals strode back inside.

It was the Jessica one that had brought him the disgusting Midgardian food, he remembered. _At least she put forth effort to bring something to eat. I'll give her points for that_. Her brown eyes watched his carefully and her stride slowed a bit as she entered, as if she were approaching an unfamiliar dog. Loki almost smiled. _She knows to fear me. Good girl._

"Hey, Loki... Are you okay to come with us? Do want me to change that before we go?" she gestured to the bandage on his stomach he was examining. He scowled at her but finally nodded; this would require swallowing his pride and accepting the help some deeply buried logical part of him knew he needed, and swallowing pride was not Loki's forte...

When she was satisfied with it she stepped back and quietly joined the others. He shrugged his leather tunic back on but decided against the armor: it was heavy, dirty, and according to the blonde Midgardian, it _so_ did not go with those pants.

**/ / / / / / / / / /**

"StarSeeker to Control. StarSeeker to Control. Bloodhounds have landed in projected search area. Moving out to survey perimeter."

"Copy."

**/ / / / / / / / /**

The little group trudged through the forest, following the general path Thor had come by, back to the aspens in the valley. It was a beautiful day, at least, with the sun still shining through the puffy clouds that had settled around the peaks above them. Thor took the lead, naturally, and Jane stuck to him like glue. They were followed by Jess, who had always been the outdoorsy type, talking to Rachel happily about what a beautiful home she had. Loki stalked along behind them, jaw clenched and arm wrapped tightly around his side. At the moment he was distracting himself from the burning by contemplating which he hated more: the amount of pleasure Thor took in doing annoying little things for Jane, or the awe the Midgardians were showing for their stupid planet.

Jess noticed him looking at her and Rachel thoughtfully, and saw he was obviously in a lot of pain and tried to be friendly,

"Hey, how are you holding up back there?" she smiled sadly.

"I'm fine," he snapped without thinking. Thor pointedly ignored them both, for Jane's sake, and continued walking. Jess stopped talking and dejectedly turned back around.

Once in a while Thor would stop to fly above the towering treetops and make sure they were still going the right way. He alighted on a limb that he knew wasn't far from where he had landed the previous night, surveyed the forest, and turned to jump back down to point the way for the others. He almost heard the sound of an engine in the distance. Almost.

It descended through the clouds only a second after a flash of scarlet disappeared back into the trees.

Loki tensed.

**/ / / / / / / / /**

"We are very near, my friends. It is just down the hillside this way," Thor pointed. They walked in the direction he said until they came to a series of clumps of huge boulders scattered like pebbles around a vast grove of aspens, just as he had described.

Thor poked around the giant stones, searching in vain for his hiding place. The others dispersed around the grove to look as well. Jess was leaning against the side of a boulder half as large as her car, studying a peculiar spot in the leaves where it looked as though someone had been laying for quite a while, when she thought she heard Thor say something... she didn't quite catch what it was.

"Huh?"

He stood and looked at her quizzically, "I did not speak, Jessica..." She heard it again, and looked to Loki. Loki in turn glared daggers at Jane when the mystery man's voice spoke again. Closer.

Jane froze as she realized who it must be right away, "Oh my _god_."

Reflexively, Thor grabbed Jane and hid her quickly in low brush and trees at the far end of the clearing. A million thoughts raced through his head as he ducked down next to her. _Who was that? Are they pursuing us? Have they seen Jane? She is fearful of them_. He gripped Mjolnir tighter. _What if they discover Loki? LOKI_. He dared to sneak a glimpse to the grove outside, but his brother was no where to be seen. Jessica Marx was still standing by a boulder, though, evidently searching for the source of the voice. He was about to ask Jane whose it was when a twig snapped at the other end of the clearing, and the owner stepped into view.

**/ / / / / / / / /**

**Poor Loki feeling conflicted :( More soon! Reviews and advice are appreciated!**


	11. A Walk In The Park

**Okay so this is the rest of the last scene that I split so I highly recommend reading them together...Please review!**

**everything but OC's is marvels**

**/ / / / / / / / / /**

Jess couldn't see the man's face; it was concealed by a sturdy black pilot's helmet complete with dark goggles and radio headset. _Not exactly a park ranger_. His jaw was set in a determined line. He wore a paratrooper's backpack and bulletproof vest embellished with the unmistakable silver eagle of Shield. While all of this must have been very interesting, what held her attention was the assault rifle gripped firmly in his gloved hands. She watched as he began to turn, as if in slow motion: watched the barrel swing around; saw herself reflected on the side of his helmet... In a moment she would be in his line of sight. _Surely he would shoot - surely he would aim to kill - and of course he wouldn't miss-_

Even if her mind had not been so focused elsewhere, she probably still would have jumped out of her skin when an ice-cold hand locked around her wrist. It jerked her roughly to the ground as its partner clamped over her mouth, stopping her startled scream in its tracks.

Her assailant shoved her back up against the base of the boulder. Hard. Jess groaned softly in pain into his hand, and felt the grip loosen slightly, as if in apology. She looked sideways and found herself staring into a now familiar pair of strikingly green eyes.

**_/ / / / / /_**

Loki shot an icy glare back that sent a clear message: _Shut. Up_. The Midgardian stopped squirming and flattened herself against the rock face, eyes wide with fear. _Thank you_. His face softened and he slowly released his hold on her, urging her with his eyes to _stay still_. She nodded.

He was almost certain the approaching Shield agent hadn't seen them. _But he wouldn't be alone_. No, he would likely be the first of many to search the forest, and eventually the planet, for Loki Laufeyson. Loki was not an idiot; he knew they would not have sent a trained team of heavily armed killers after precious _Jane_. Or even Thor, if they knew he was here. Thor didn't seem to think they did or should know, because he had not revealed himself yet. _At least the oaf has the presence of mind to stay concealed. All the same, they'll find him eventually_. It seemed the mortals and Thor did not possess the same natural knack for stealth that Loki did.

He silently cursed Shield: a barrier between him and ruling this realm, a barrier between him and equality with Thor, and now the barrier between him and his freedom. He would have loved to make them pay, loved to watch them suffer... He glared around the edge of the rock at the lead agent. If he took only a few more steps, he would see everything. Loki. Jess. The glow of the cube from the underbrush. The telltale blood on the forest floor.

Loki shivered. Not with fear, but anger. No, he only truly _feared_ the Other. These Midgardians were pathetic _insects_ that had somehow managed to play a part in the cataclysmic, deadly game that took so much from him. He tried to remind himself that revenge wouldn't help him escape right now; the cube's casing would. But they, along with select others, deserved to pay. If only he could make it happen. He could practically _feel_ his hands grip his staff; he could almost _hear_ the intoxicating, electric flow of power buzzing about -

_He could feel his hands grip the staff._

Loki looked down incredulously. There, in his hands, which he had only seconds ago removed from the mortal, only moments ago clenched in anger, was the intricate golden shaft that ended in a twinkling, razor sharp silver blade. His staff. _His staff._

He had called it, and it had come.

**/ / / / / /**

The agent heard a small noise, barely audible, to his left, and crept forward cautiously, gun poised. As he stepped around the huge rock, he saw what everyone on that jet had been dreading, but few had expected to see: the leader of the previous day's invasion himself, distinctly recognizable with his jet black hair, foreign clothing, and signature weapon in hand. Which, oddly enough, he was staring at as if mesmerized, as if he had never seen it before in his life.

_Strange_, the agent thought, for he knew they were still counting the bodies that had died by its blade. Wasting no time, he silently raised his semi-automatic to the god's head to fire. _'Dead or alive,_' Director Fury had told them,_ 'Preferably dead.'_

The agent, however, had wrongly assumed that Loki was a solo act. So he was quite surprised when a sizable stone which had been thrown with some force struck his face, cracking the goggles just above his nose. Loki's head snapped up at the noise. Even more surprising, a young girl who he hadn't yet noticed crouched by the boulder used this time to cover the few feet between them and shove his gun off target.

_An accomplice?_

He regained his senses and threw her to the ground quite easily; she couldn't have been more than half his weight. It seemed the stone had been her only weapon, so he let her lie there and trained his gun back on the trickster, calling his fellow agents though his radio. They were within earshot now. He could hear them shouting to each other as they ran through the forest to his location.

Loki sat unmoving, regarding him with an amused expression, as if it was going to be great fun to die.

_Crazy bastard_, the agent thought, and released a relentless spray of bullets on the demigod before him. He didn't hear the horrified screech from the ground beside him, or the agonized yell from the brush nearby.

When the deafening noise of gunfire stopped and the smoke cleared, the agent was in for another surprise. His professionally blank, battle-hardened face dropped into a gape at the scene.

Loki was somehow still posed there, mocking him with that amused smirk of his, and then the next second he wasn't. He was gone. Not like he fell over dead. Not like he miraculously got up and walked away. Loki just _wasn't there_.

With a snarl, the agent whirled on the girl. At least he could get the accomplice. _She'll talk._

He didn't even have time to squeeze the trigger. He only heard a cold chuckle just inches from his ear, before he was blinded by a white explosion in his skull and the world fell away.

**/ / / / / /**

Jess pushed herself into a sitting position and looked up, dazedly wondering how Loki was standing in front of her. It had all happened so fast. She wasn't sure what instinct had pushed her to fight back against that guy, but she was sure glad it had because somehow she was alive, Loki was alive, and the Shield agent was dead. _That agent is dead_. She gagged and crawled backwards away from the body that had fallen in front of her with its head no longer attached to its shoulders.

Loki took a step forward, and for one terrifying second she thought he intended to kill her too. Instead, however, he reached down with his free hand and pulled her to her feet. He seemed strangely calm, or even happy, for someone that had just cheated death and murdered a government agent, she thought. He led her, almost running, back across the clearing, only to have Thor rush into them with Jane and Rachel behind him and the Tesseract's casing in hand.

**/ / / / / /**

There was no time for questions or explanation. They could see the rest of the special ops team closing in, running through the forest down the hillside. Loki threw a longing look at the casing in Thor's hand, and closed his eyes in concentration. This wouldn't be easy, but he had no plans of dying today, and plus Thor would kill him for sure if something happened to his stupid mortal.

"Hold on to the scepter."

The others did as they were told, and within a moment they were gone. No flash. No smoke. They were just gone. The rest of the agents swarmed into an empty clearing, weapons raised. There was nothing out of the ordinary in sight except for the body of their fallen comrade and a peculiar pattern in the leaves.

**/ / / / / / / / / / / /**

**So shit just got REAL. review!**


	12. A Change in the Winds

**Hi everyone! so so sorry this took forever but look - its the longest chapter yet! I feel like I'm getting better at writing overall (I won an essay contest recently- gah :D) but hey, that's not for me to decide so REVIEW!**

**marvel owns all :(  
**

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"Say again? _Say again_, Agent Hill?"

Director Fury stood at the control center, blocking a dozen different agents, computer messages, and phone calls, trying to hear the person standing in front of him.

The base was in absolute chaos: about ten different alarms were going off at once, teams were asking for orders he didn't have yet, the helipad was being prepped for a landing, and all the technicians were swarming from desk to desk, trying to get things under control again. Agent Hill tilted her chin up and spoke louder over the commotion:

"The StarSeeker team searched the area for the signal origin, sir. They've since called a full retreat."

"Retreat? Why?"

"Apparently they found who they were looking for, sir, but he's gone. Again," she looked at the floor.

He massaged his forehead to try to push away the growing migraine, "And?"

"And there's an agent down. At least one we know of, sir. They photographed the site before they left, and they're on their way back here with the body. I have the photographs here," she held out a tablet to him.

He took it and scrolled through the lengthy collection of pictures the team had sent. They all documented an empty clearing somewhere in the Colorado forest from every possible angle. It seemed mostly plain, but sprinkled with traces of what had happened there: The agent's body on the ground. Bullet holes in the trees. A familiar pair of handcuffs lying next to a bloodied aspen. An _empty_pair of handcuffs.

The photos didn't display the full carnage of a battlefield like Fury had seen before, but they proved something much more terrifying: Loki was here. _He was back_.

**/ / / / / / / / /**

With a loud _CRACK_, the two Asgardians and three mortals appeared out of thin air, out of space itself, and crashed in a disoriented heap into the basement. Jess blinked her eyes open and slowly looked around. Her head was still spinning from the trip, or jump, or teleport, or whatever it was... She didn't know exactly what had just happened, but whatever it was had made her stomach flip sickeningly and now she was laying face down on the floor...Or, wait, correction -

Loki growled and shoved whichever mortal had landed on top of him off. He was a bit surprised that the jump had actually worked, but he could still feel the energy that had torn them through space flowing, pulsing wildly, and fought to get it under control again.

With a grunt, Thor rolled off of the splintered remains of the charred coffee table he had unfortunately landed on, and turned to help Jane and Rachel up. He had never particularly liked traveling that way with Loki, but this time it had been necessary, obviously.

Jess sat up and looked around. It seemed like everyone had made it back alright, except for perhaps Loki looking a little exhausted. Maybe he wasn't so bad after all. Somehow he had magically gotten them out of there and back to Rachel's house, and she was so grateful to be away from the guns and dead body that she didn't even have some sarcastic retort for him for shoving her onto the floor.

Whatever he had done had clearly drained whatever power he'd used: he was still sitting on the wood floor leaning against the couch, his newly won staff hanging in limp arms. She leaned over to ask if he was okay, because he was ignoring Thor and he didn't look so good. She wondered why every time he had tried to use his magic, it blew up in his face. _Sometimes literally..._

This time nothing had exploded or caught fire, at least. But he still looked exhausted, and strained, like he was wrestling with whatever power he held, and his lips were seemingly tinged blue. She looked closer. In fact, his whole face was tinged blue. She gasped and backed away as it grew darker, deeper, like a cold ink was creeping up under his skin. It was the color of an icy winter dawn, glazed with frost.

"Um, _Loki...?"_

He tensed and glanced at her with ruby red eyes, and she couldn't decide if they spelled fear or anger, or both. She was certainly afraid. After a few seconds that seemed like hours, he blinked again and suddenly they were back to electric green, and his face slowly faded back to its normal pale color again.

"Brother, are you well?" Thor cautiously took a step towards Loki. He knew what that had been, of course, but hadn't yet seen it himself before.

"Am I _well_?" he scoffed back, getting to his feet, and now seemingly with the magic finally under control.

"Loki, I grow tired of your mockery. I simply posed a question-"

"Would you like me to start listing the things that _I grow tired of_?!" he hissed with an accusing finger pointed at Thor. When Thor didn't say anything, he stepped lightly around him and continued on up the basement stairs, arm clenched again around his wound.

"Should we go after him?" Jess said when the basement door shut by itself behind him.

Thor frowned, "Nay, he would not take kindly to that. His magic is likely weakened for a time and he will not wander far from this," he held up the cube and its casing, "He just likely prefers to be alone, especially after what you've seen."

Jess had seen a lot in one day. Magic, demigods, a swat team, a corpse... But whatever had just happened to Loki took the cake.

"And speaking of what we've seen, what the hell was that?"

**/ / / / / / / / / /**

"The quinjet team is landing, Director," the technician said.

"Fantastic. I want them fully debriefed and in my office within the hour."

"Yes, sir." The technician strode off, and Director Fury turned back to the tablet in his hands to continue examining the photographs. Yes, Loki was definitely here, but there were so many unanswered questions. _Had he come alone? What was his condition? Was he planning to attack again_? So far he'd only killed one agent, but that could be just the beginning if they didn't stay on their guard...

"Hill, look at this," he held out the tablet so she could see one of the photographs.

"Yes?"

"The bullet marks on the trees in the back. Look at the angle. That agent down was the only one in the clearing, right?"

"Yes, and the reports have already confirmed there was gunfire..."

"Yeah, but last I checked, dead people can't shoot. Which means Loki, who would have been behind this boulder, here, laid low and let that agent walk right up to him and shoot up half the clearing before he finally decided to attack. Why? What was he waiting for?"

"I don't know, sir. It doesn't seem like him to hide like that."

"Exactly. Something's not right here. Maybe he was waiting for someone else. Or he's hurt." _Hopefully_. There had been blood found at the scene, but the analysis hadn't come in yet.

"Maybe," Hill said. Just then, a technician rushed over to them.

"The quinjet team is coming in now, sir. We're meeting in room A113 for debriefing."

Nick Fury tucked the tablet under his arm, "Let's get to work, then."

Thor heard Loki's slow, measured footsteps on the floor above, and, having decided he wasn't making a run for it, turned back to Jane. She smiled shyly up at him with golden eyes. Even though she didn't seem to care for Loki, she knew that Thor did and recognized that it must have been difficult for him to have a relationship like that with his brother. He was grateful to her for that. It had been awkward explaining Loki's ...heritage to them, but it had gone over better than he'd thought.

"So, uh, do you want me to take a look at that?" Jane gestured to the Tesseract and the two halves of its casing. Thor smiled back and nodded, and carefully handed the objects over to her.

Jane was elated to be holding it again; things like this never ceased to fascinate her. Rachel seemed to be interested in the cube as well, and plopped down in the armchair and watched as Jane sat back down on the couch to examine it. It was still glowing brightly, and almost seemed to buzz with energy as Jane held it in her palm. It was the most perfect thing she'd ever seen. However, it's casing was a different story: It was scuffed, scorched, and although the handles were luckily intact, the glass center and cracked in half and it would probably have to be reconnected in order to work properly again.

"Thor, can you tell me how this casing lets you travel? You know, so I can work on putting it back together right."

"I know not, Jane," Thor sat down beside her, "It seemingly works as a channeling device for the cube's power, so that its user may harness it without bringing harm to themselves or others."

"Ok... Do you know what kind of power that is? Like, electricity, or radioactivity? On earth, the name 'Tesseract' means four-dimensional cube, but that's mostly just for mathematicians and scientists, because we only have three spacial dimensions to work with. But there must be something special about this cube, because, I mean, it has so much energy compacted and it magically takes you between the realms."

"I am sorry to say I do not truly understand the power it possesses, but perhaps, Jane, your science and magic are the same." For once, Thor saw the value in the countless hours Loki had spent as a child learning about these invisible forces of the universe and perfecting his skill, and he regretted all the times he and the other children might have jeered at him for not taking such an interest in battle.

As if she had read his mind, Jess said, "What about Loki? I mean, he just teleported us with only that magic stick. I bet he knows how this thing works."

"Speak to him if you wish, Jessica, but I doubt he will comply to aiding us in turning him over to his own captors," Thor said dismissively, and turned back to Jane and the cube.

Trying to ignore the fact that Loki was still around and, yes, it was because of him they had made it back, Jane stared back at the casing and said, "Rachel, do your parents have any tools or anything I could work with, like in the garage or something?"

"I think so. My dad's pretty handy. I'll see what I can find." Rachel walked off in search of supplies to help Jane and Thor fix the casing.

Tentatively, Jess crept up the basement staircase in search of Loki. The stairs creaked under her small feet and she stepped through the doorway into the kitchen. It was seemingly empty, so she walked on into the living room. _Empty_. There was no one in the leather chairs, or on the sofa, or by the fireplace... Beginning to worry that he had actually left, Jess raced up the stairs to the second floor and turned down the hallway.

** / / / / / /**

Loki sat, brooding, in the farthest corner of the Midgardian residence he could find. He was perched in the window bench of the loft, staring out the back window and absently cleaning off the blade of his scepter, now caked with blood again for the second time in the past few days. He almost didn't notice anymore.

_So now Thor has his prize. My prize_. And Thor seemed ever so confident that his mortal woman could repair it.

_Let her. Less work on my part_. Thor would surely only intend to use the Tesseract for travel, and had no real knowledge of magic. Not like Loki.

_No, the extent of that oaf's plan is to twist the handle and throw me to my knees before Odin_. But Loki had no intention of letting him get that far. While he had been defeated, captured, humiliated, and injured, instinct and logic told him to give up this ambition and run. Run and hide. But where? Even when this staff, so empowering in his hands, fully restored his magic enough to jump more than the few miles he'd managed, where was he to go? Whatever was left of his army would not be loyal to him, and Thanos and the Other were still out there beyond the stars somewhere, waiting for him to give himself away. Or perhaps even searching.

He looked back at the loft door a few moments before it opened, and a Midgardian in a state of near panic stuck her head inside. He was surprised to learn that he wasn't annoyed by her entering as much as he was relieved by the opportunity for a break from nothing but his own dark thoughts.

Jess relaxed when she saw him, and slid inside.

"Hey, there you are, Loki! For a minute there I thought you left," She walked over and stood quietly by the edge of the futon in the corner.

He stared at her blankly. He had guessed Thor might want insight on how to use the magic he needed, but to send one of the mortals to get it - really? _He must think me a child_. Loki was surprised when Jessica opened her mouth and what came out had nothing to do with the information Thor needed.

"Are you okay? Did that guy shoot you at all?"

He almost laughed. "No, I'm quite alright. That man was a fool to think he could catch me with his pathetic excuse for a weapon." (He had also soothed his stab wound to no more than a dull ache with magic a few minutes before.)

"Oh. Well it looked pretty scary to me."

He rolled his eyes. "That _gun_, as mortals refer to it, is a coward's weapon. And I've witnessed much, much worse in ...other worlds."

"Other worlds. You're... joohten, right?

He glared pure ice at her. _Of course she had to bring that up_. "I'm _jotun_, yes," he said lowly, "A monster. Would you like to go running back to Thor now?"

"No."

_No?_He looked at her, amused. This creature was a curious, pretty thing, but apparently not very smart.

"I just wondered. Is Thor... jotun too?"

"Of course not," he spat, "He is not my brother."

"Oh. Sorry. So... what is your other world like?"

"Asgard is... similar in landscape to Midgard, but grander. Jotunheim is cold and vile." Experimentally, he gripped his staff and made a picture in his mind.

He muttered something quietly and with a flick of his wrist, Jess felt the very air in the room change. The temperature plummeted like a stone, and a swirling blizzard of flying snow formed and whited out the walls around them. Jess gasped and hugged herself against the invisible wall next to Loki, who was looking bluer by the second. The cold bit at her numb skin, and the mountains outside the window no longer seemed to be her own.

He allowed the illusion to go on for a few more seconds, then calmly banished it with another self-satisfied flick of his hand. "You see?" He said as the temperature returned to normal and his skin paled.

"Um, yeah. That was a freaky cool trick, too." To herself she thought, _No wonder. I'd be an angry vengeful psychopath too if my family lied to me and I had to spend another minute in that place._

He chuckled, "Why, thank you."

She smiled and placed a gentle hand on his arm, "Thank _you_. For getting us out of the clearing earlier, I mean. I don't know what happened with your family, or why you hate earth, but I hope you won't always hate us. It's not so bad here. And you're not a monster." He didn't say anything, and his face was an unreadable mask. She added, "Why don't you come back downstairs, or at least eat something?"

This human was severely misconceiving in her ideas about earth and him not being a monster, he thought, but she was right that he needed to eat. And sulking in a corner wasn't going to get him food, information, or the cube. He shrugged and stood to walk towards the door, scepter in hand. He briefly considered trying to enter Jessica's mind with it, but dismissed the idea because Thor would notice and his own thoughts were consuming enough. And besides, she was the most civil Midgardian he'd come by so far. She didn't seem to hold prejudices against him, and he decided it best to gain her trust now, even if only to turn and use it against them later. Which he told himself again he _would_ do, if necessary.

**/ / / / / / /**

**Poor Loki :( at least his magic is getting better. So group has the casing but SHIELD! DISCUSS! and by discuss i mean REVIEW!  
**


	13. Be Prepared

**Hi everyone! So this chapter was fun and possibly exciting, but sorry it took so long. Hope its worth it. **

**Also, this is random but have any of you read "Lord of the Flies"? I'm starting to notice this poor coffee table thing kinda reminds me of Piggy's glasses. You know, they get broken more and more as the story goes on and the island spirals out of control. Anyway I didn't even mean to do that so LOL**

**all is marvels...and possibly unintentionally whoever made Lord of the Flies? **

**/ / / / / / /**

Rachel frowned and continued sweeping up the basement's oak floor. Things had started to get _seriously crazy_ since those two guys had shown up. First, they had actually turned out to be magical aliens as they had claimed, then they had almost gotten all of them shot getting their magical-alien-thingy. _Whatever_. And now it turned out one of them had tried to take over New York and just killed a man right in front of Jess, who, in Rachel's opinion, was being, like, _way_ too friendly with the psycho guy. _Maybe she just wants to make sure she stays on his good side, if he has one._

Rachel gathered the splintered pieces of her coffee table in her arms and dropped them in the trashcan by the back door. That was going to be a tough one to explain to her parents...That and the blood on the couch. And how she had eaten like three quarters of the food in the pantry over the weekend.

_Speak of the devil_. As if on command, Thor trumped down the stairs triumphantly with another container of food in his hands. He sat down on the couch next to Jane, who had begun measuring the cube and trying to roughly reconstruct the inner frame of its casing on the floor. By the looks of it, it was going smoothly so far, but there was still a piece of the puzzle missing that showed in the concern on her face. It was either that or she hadn't slept at all last night and thought she might pass out. Or both.

Thor was followed shortly by Jess munching a granola bar and Loki behind her, eyeing his snack as if it were a slug picked up on a dare. He ate it, nonetheless, not wanting to waste any of his precious magic on transfiguring something so trivial.

He sank down into the armchair across from Thor and Jane, resting his scepter against his knee. He observed Jane's work silently, debating whether or not to aid her. He quickly decided not to, because Thor would wish to leave as soon as the casing was properly repaired, and Loki wasn't sure his wound and his magic were well enough for him to take the cube and go on the run just yet. Having the staff sure helped, though. Even just holding it, he could feel the power slowly seeping back like a warm, welcome current into his mind.

**/ / / / / / / / / /**.

Director Fury slumped back into the conference room chair as the last of the agents submitted their written statements and filed solemnly out the door. The debriefing hadn't taken too long; there wasn't much known information to tell. All that they knew for sure was that Loki was on Earth, Loki was armed, and Loki had done what Loki seemed to do best.

"Do you think he'll be back with another army, sir?" Hill said as she closed the door behind them.

"I doubt it. We pretty much obliterated his last one, and I bet that didn't look too good in the eyes of his inter-dimensional Shakespeare club. But he's already killed one man. Who's to say he'll stop there? We need to get a handle on this quickly, before Council finds out. Or worse."

"Yes, s-," Hill was suddenly interrupted when an agent, who turned out to be none other than the base's head of the research department, began pounding on the door until she reached over and opened it for him.

"Director Fury," the man puffed, straightening his glasses and doing his best to look Fury squarely in the eye, "Loki's staff. It's gone."

"Gone? What do you mean, _'it's gone_'? It was placed in the most secure research facility we own. I don't suppose it grew magical legs and wandered off."

"Sir, we just received word from that lab that it's gone. They've already reviewed the security tapes, and it didn't wander off. No one stole it, either." Now Hill turned back to the agent, wide-eyed.

"Then what happened?" Fury asked, crossing his arms in frustration. Could _nothing_ go their way?

"Frankly, we don't know, sir. On the tape, the researchers scanning it turn their backs for a moment, there's an energy level spike on the monitors, and then in the next frame it's just gone."

_Just gone._

Nick Fury could almost feel the despair creeping into the room. This was _horrible_. This was the _last straw_. Not only had the most dangerous war criminal this world had seen returned, and not only was he armed, but he was in possession of a deadly weapon they knew almost _nothing_ about - except for the fact that it was one of the only two known devices which could be used to make a stable portal with the cube, of course.

_He has the key - what if he gets hold of the door?_

Fury looked to the agents as he stepped out of the conference room and headed towards the control center.

"Assemble the Avengers. This isn't over yet."

_**/ / / / / / / / / **_

Jane dropped the framework back at her knees in frustration. She knelt amongst her work in front of the couch, her head resting against the sofa armrest. She had almost reached her breaking point. It had been hours - the sun was sinking fast now - and she still had no _clue_ how the cube worked. And even worse, she could feel Loki's smug, taunting eyes on her the whole time that made her too uncomfortable to make any real progress with the casing. If it had not been for Thor's warm, calming hand on her shoulder she was sure she would have thrown it at him.

Loki's smirk grew.

"Shut _up_!" Jane cried softly, as if he had voiced what she could see written across his face. She was tired. So, so tired. "If you think I'm so stupid then, please, enlighten us. I'm sorry my _feeble mortal mind_ is incapable of understanding how _that_" she pointed shakily to the Tesseract "is supposed to magically take us through space. But when it does, I hope they lock you up forever," she glared at him coldly but stopped talking, for Thor.

She was half afraid her exasperated outburst would set him off, but instead he just chuckled quietly and reclined in the chair. The girl would no doubt pay for that, in time. For now he enjoyed her frustration and the conflicted look it had placed on Thor's face. _All the better to play with._

"It shall 'transport us through space'? Mortal, it _is_ space. You've no idea." He chuckled again. She was getting _nowhere_. At this rate he could restore all of his magic and assemble another army befor-

And just like that, it clicked. The last piece, the last critical piece - the keystone - fell perfectly into place. Jane's eyes widened slightly in realization, despite their obvious exhaustion.

"That's _it_."

"What is?" Jess said as she walked back downstairs with her microwave dinner.

"That's the fourth dimension."

"Sure," Jess said as she settled on to the floor when neither Asgardian made a move to share the furniture.

"No. It's like space within space," Jane continued, talking to no one in particular now, "Space_time_, really. It's a dimension too. The cube contains space within space; energy and matter conversion within itself as relation to time. It's dynamic."

Thor didn't seem to understand everything she was explaining as she carried on, but he got the gist. A bright smile lit up his face, "Well done, Jane. Does this knowledge further your understanding of the cube?"

"Uh, yeah," Jane yawned, and gently scooped the Tesseract off of its spot next to Thor, "Normally it would be impossible for complex matter like humans to reach the lightspeeds necessary for inter-dimensional travel, but with a wormhole..." she trailed off and started tinkering with the casing again.

Loki scowled the instant they took their eyes off him. He had not even fathomed she would get anything out of his smarmy remarks but further frustration. But clearly she had. _Of course - leave it to the Midgardians to devise a science that tries to meddle with the fabric of space itself. With magic._

He continued to glower at Thor and Jane, telling himself that it didn't matter, that he would be long gone by the time she repaired it completely and before Thor could do anything about it. But would he be ready? His sharp eyes darted from the cube to Mjolnir and back to his scepter. He willed it to steady his magic more quickly, and rubbed gently at the bandage wrapping his wound.

"You okay?" a cautious voice said from beside him. The voice said it through a mouthful of microwave lasagna, so it sounded more like 'Yugh omkay?' He glanced over and saw the Jessica girl scarfing down a repulsive looking dish, but probably one of the few remaining.

Strangely, he thought, he wasn't really sure how to respond. Shield wasn't here, but they would be. The Other wasn't after him, but he was probably searching. The cube was intact, but Thor was guarding it. He hadn't died from that stab wound, but then again he wasn't sure he actually could have. So many buts.

_Lie, then._

"I suppose I am well. For now."

Jess wasn't sure what to say. She knew Loki must be thinking about what was going to happen to him, and for an instant she felt, well, sorry for him. But... he _did_ deserve it, right?

"Ok..did you want anything? You didn't seem to enjoy that granola bar."

_Did he want anything. Did he ever want anything._ Her chocolate eyes stared up at him with innocence that couldn't possibly comprehend what he wanted. So instead of saying the Tesseract, or freedom, or a family, or to burn this planet to dust, he waited a moment and said, "I suppose a bath would be appealing."

Jess nodded and gestured towards his wound, "Yeah, you should wash that out."

Rachel, meanwhile, said a silent thank-you prayer to whatever other gods were out there, because these ones had spent the better of two days warring and hiking through the woods, and they were starting to smell.

"It's just upstairs to the left," she said almost too quickly. Loki didn't even glance at her as he stalked up the basement stairs again. From the windows in the kitchen he could see that the sun had already sunk below the mountain skyline, and darkness was falling fast. He continued on upstairs.

He caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror as he walked into the bathroom, and paused to examine it. His tunic was bloody and ragged, and a layer of dust clung to his boots and normally spotless hair - _from Tony Stark's floor, no doubt_, he thought bitterly. He was shocked by the image of himself; the face of the man who stared back was dirty and thin and tired. But his eyes were greener; clearer somehow than they had been in New York. He tore his gaze away and delicately unwrapped the gauze around the stab wound. It was still tender and relatively deep, but the magic was clearly doing it's job.

The Midgardian appliances were easy enough to figure out, once he had adjusted the water to where it wouldn't burn him or something. He felt in a substantially better mood once he had cleaned the wound and "borrowed" some of the mortals' hideous (but non-bloody) clothing.

He returned downstairs with his scepter, which now looked completely out of place with his attire, but he wasn't about to let it out of his sight. The two Midgardian girls were reading huddled together in the armchair, as only bestfriends can. Jane, it seemed, had fallen asleep in Thor's arms on the sofa, her small form giving in to exhaustion at last. The partially assembled casing lay nearby, but Thor kept the cube with him. He eyed Loki warily as he approached, but didn't speak. The others looked up from their books as well when he walked over and sat down on the edge of the hearth.

"You look, um, better," Jess commented. Rachel had to admit he did, and she was still a little nervous about him being there with the whole psycho overlord thing, so she didn't say anything about him stealing her brother's clothes.

Half an hour later, Rachel and Jessica said they were going to bed and agreed to talk about what to do about Shield in the morning. Thor agreed, and Rachel said Loki could stay in the room where he had found the repulsive clothing, since the couch was already occupied. _As if I need their permission_. He didn't say it aloud, though, and instead walked upstairs to rest, his mind already filling again with thoughts of what was to come.

It was all more than a bit strange, really; his so-called enemies were harboring him and offering him aid, while his arch rival's maiden unwittingly prepared his ticket out. Despite his nagging thoughts of who might be plotting after _him_, he smiled darkly to himself._ They'll never see it coming._

**_/ / / / / / /_**

**_Review for more soon! and by Be Prepared I meant that badass song from the Lion King_**


	14. Waste Not

**Hi again!**

**So wait a minute - none of you have read Lord of the Flies? poor deprived people D:**

**Anyways I made another chapter, and I'd love feedback on the dream sequence because I want to write about matters of the mind later - You know, in real life, if I get one of those. **

**all belongs to marvel except my OCs**

**/ / / / **

It was darker than the black of the abyss, but regardless he had never seen anything quite so clearly.

Perhaps it was because he was equipped not only with sight, but with the eerie sixth sense of the cunning mind that can taste the nature of an image just as well as the third eye can hold it in place. It was rather cruel, with an almost clairvoyant sensation of the impending events.

Loki watched - and was hard-pressed to keep his face neutral as he did so - as a scarred, mangled, hooded form stepped out of the darkness and into his field of vision (he would not go so far as to call it _the light_). The Other circled around him at a slow, measured pace, rasping in a breath that made the hairs on the back of his neck prickle, and eventually spoke. Though he needn't have spoken at all - Loki knew ahead of time what he would say.

But he did. The shuffling footsteps halted directly behind Loki, daring him to turn around in cowardice (Loki just _wouldn't_ - he adamantly stared straight ahead, chin up), and the scathing, raspy voice that sounded like the wind that might stir in Helheim blew through his raven hair.

"You have failed, Asgardian." It was a statement, not a question, and the eerie omniscient sense of the mind added much more that Loki would have liked not to know. Without moving, the Other continued.

"He is very displeased, you know. He had not fathomed such...embarrassing failure would arise from such a... promising young leader's quest." Loki searched for a retort to the obvious insult, only to find that he couldn't speak - the cursed iron muzzle was latched to his jaw again, barring his best line of defense. Even more, he found he couldn't so much as reach to pry it off, or even turn for that matter. It was as if he was paralyzed, frozen in place. Panic tightened his throat, but the Other seemed to take no notice as he continued on.

"You must, and will, pay for this grave error, Asgardian. It is my duty to see to it that He not witness this caliber of incompetence."

Loki had the unfortunate displeasure of knowing what was coming, as he had from the moment he'd arrived... wherever he was. Location was not at the forefront of his thoughts at the moment. Panic was replaced by a faraway sense of helplessness when he found no response from his magic, and he was still bound in place by some unseen force.

He could feel the Other's crooked excuse for a smile on his back as well as he could see it, even though he was facing away.

"They say He courts Death, Odinson. And as I have sworn to Him, we shall give Her quite a show tonight."

The darkness exploded into blue flames.

**/ / / / / / / / / /**

Jess blinked her eyes open in the soft early-morning glow of the first sunlight. _Too early_. She was about to slip back into unconsciousness when she remembered who was staying _in this house_, Rachel's house in Colorado, and suddenly she was too excited to go back to sleep. She stretched and ruffled her hair, and clambered out of the futon bed.

Jess padded down the hallway in her pajamas, heading for the stairs to the foyer. She could hear voices coming from the kitchen below; it seemed the others had decided to rise early as well. On her way down the hall she passed Rachel's room, which appeared empty, and Rachel's brother's room, which was not.

She looked inside to see a figure still sprawled across the bed, a sheen of sweat on his pale, troubled-looking face, black hair slightly askew, and apparently still fast asleep. _I guess even alien invaders need their beauty sleep_. The array of bruises and cuts which had been visible did look to be getting a bit better, whether from rest or (more likely) improved magic, and Jess wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing at this point. She was definitely happy he was getting better, but the magic made her nervous. He didn't look like the kind of guy who could have picked up _that_ blade (currently resting on the nightstand) and killed countless innocents. But he had. Sure, she wanted to help him, but who was to say he'd keep his promise to Thor not to hurt them once he got better? Jess slipped out of the doorway without disturbing him and continued downstairs.

**/ / / / / / / / / /**

Nick Fury looked up from the tense conference room table as two more of the six Avengers walked inside. Agents Barton and Romanoff had gotten there first, obviously. Rogers had shown up next, eager to help at the first sign of more trouble. Now Tony Stark strode in, flanked by Bruce. Fury couldn't decide which one of those two looked more unhappy to be back here.

"So, what, me blowing up his _entire army_ wasn't enough? Hasn't he figured out when to quit yet? 'Cause he sure as hell didn't know to quit when he was ahead -"

"Stark." Fury cut him off and motioned to a chair. Tony grumbled something but walked over and sat in it. Bruce followed and sat down next to him.

"Gentlemen," Fury began, "..and ladies," he added carefully after a burning glare from Natasha, "As I'm sure you've already read in your briefings on your way here, this war is not over yet. We have significant reason to believe that Loki is back on earth. We do not know where he is hiding, or if he has come alone."

"Why don't you ask his brother?" Tony said.

"We haven't been able to establish any contact with Thor since their initial departure, though he may be back too, and Dr. Foster is missing. Anyways, we also have reason to believe the Tesseract is here on earth, and Loki may be in possession of it. Our sensors picked up a short burst of energy after the Manhattan events were believed to be over."

"What makes you think Loki has it?" Steve said.

"We sent a team of special ops in to recover it, and one of them was killed. Decapitated. Around the time we think Loki's staff went missing. These," he held up a pair of bloodied manacles, "were found at the scene."

Tony let out a low whistle. (He knew what it took to break those things - he'd made them himself.) Clint turned away from Natasha and glared at him.

"Do you think this is _funny_, Stark? That was one of my friends. I trusted that guy with my life. I guess my only consolation here is he wasn't one of the ones _I_ killed."

"Come on, _Cupid_. Chill out. This guy was a -" Clint and Natasha both whirled on him and started yelling at once. Bruce shank away from Tony.

"This isn't a _joke_-"

"Then STOP messing around-"

"Just listen-"

"GENTLEMEN"

Director Fury massaged his forehead again. He had met very few people with such an ability to throw the Avengers into chaos. And one of them was an Avenger. _We do not have time to argue. Not today..._

_"Shut UP!"_

Everyone stopped talking. No one had ever heard something like that out of quiet, reserved Steve before.

He stood with solemn authority and addressed the group, "Listen, don't let Loki play the circumstances against us again. We need to focus our efforts on stopping him."

"Thank you, Captain Obvious." Steve turned bright red and sank back into his seat.

"TONY!" A few people warned. The room threatened to erupt again, and it wasn't the only thing. Fury didn't like the look on Bruce's face at all.

"GENTLEMEN!" he shouted, bringing a hand down on the table, "Rogers is right: we don't need a fight amongst each other again. We are wasting time here. And time is something we _do not have_ to waste."

**/ / / / / / / / /**

Thor might have been content to stay like this for a long, long time; with Jane under his arm and a beautiful view out the window that compared with the rolling landscapes of the outer hills of Asgard. But he knew he could not. Not now, rather. He knew every moment they waited was another moment his brother grew stronger. (He was not at all opposed to the idea of Loki becoming well again, but he would have felt much safer if Loki were regaining his power within the security of Odin's palace.)

He set his mug down gently on the kitchen table (it seemed to please the Midgardians) and greeted Jessica Marx as she walked in.

"Hey," she yawned, and made her way to the "fridge" for breakfast.

"Good morning, Lady Jessica."

"Hey sleepyhead," Rachel giggled, "Where's Loki?"

"Asleep,_ last I saw_," she got some milk out of the fridge and proceeded to get a bowl of cereal.

"Rest shall do him well," Thor said, "And we should be prepared to return to Asgard by dawn tomorrow. Lady Jane has made excellent progress concerning our portal device," he gave her an approving smile, "And I must thank you again for your hospitality. I understand my brother has shown hostility towards Midgardians, but you aided us all the same. I hope this journey can be the beginnings of a great change for him, as mine was for me," he smiled again and kissed Jane's forehead.

Jess smiled awkwardly, "So, uh, what are we going to do about Shield? I guess you guys have to go soon, huh?"

"Yes, I am afraid so. Lady Jane says we can put our transportation device to trials by midday. Your government holds a great deal of hatred for my brother, and rightfully so. But I have sworn to him that I shall at very least return him to my father, the King of Asgard, for fair trial before the Council."

"Woah, your dad's the_ king_?" Rachel said in awe. Jess nodded to her as Thor continued.

"Yes, and that is part of the reason for Loki's malice. He was adopted during times of war as a baby, and only discovered this... recently. He mislikes that I am the heir to Odin's throne, and we believe he intended to prove himself worthy, of..." Thor shrugged and shook his head.

"I said I never wanted the damn _throne_, Thor. Have you trouble hearing?"

Jane jumped at the voice, and all four heads spun around to see Loki hovering silently in the kitchen doorway.

_How long has he been standing there_? Jess thought. _He could have followed me right down here, for all we know_. But then another thought occurred to her: _If he can slip away so easily - why isn't he running? Why hasn't he left?_

"Brother..." Thor started with the expression of one who is exasperated at having to explain something for the thousandth time.

"Do not _refer_ to me by that _name_. You only just stated yourself -"

Jess, sensing the boiling that tended to lead to them bickering like old ladies (and Loki inevitably verbally wiping the floor with Thor), cut in, "You know, on earth - or, uh, Midgard - adopted siblings are usually still called brothers or sisters and stuff." Thor gave her a look of gratitude, but Loki turned to her before he could respond.

"You know _nothing_," Loki spat back, though it sounded half-hearted and his voice was significantly calmer now that he wasn't talking to Thor. Jess suddenly knew she'd stepped on a nerve - which, with Loki, was difficult to avoid. He turned and walked away over into the adjacent sunroom, careful not to glance too long at the Tesseract sitting on the table as he made his way away from his "brother". _Not yet. To make a move this foolishly early would be a waste. _

Jess watched him go and felt a pang of guilt. She knew what he'd done to New York, but, even more shocking, she'd also learned (through her laptop, his little magic trick the previous day, Thor, and a mythology book of Rachel's) what had been done to _him_. Between Jotun-whatever, the jealousy issue, the temptation of the cube, and pressure on him from his family's status and whatever crazy alien he'd gotten involved with, she was pretty sure she would have gone insane much earlier if put in his position. That didn't change what he'd done, of course, _but maybe_..she thought, _Maybe Thor is right, maybe he can change_. But on the other hand, Thor seemed to be the overly optimistic type, especially when it came to his brother.

Still, she walked over to the sunroom after him and watched him brood in the corner for a minute, which seemed to be becoming a habit of his.

"You're right."

He looked up.

"What?"

"You're right. That I don't know, about...stuff."

"Of course I am right. Wondrous, isn't it?"

"But you could talk about it, if you want." He looked back down again.

"Do I appear as if I wish to converse about it? No, mortal."

Jess, not wanting to make him mad or something, tried a different approach. She smiled, "You know, for the one they call Silvertongue, you don't like to talk very much."

He grinned, "Waste not."

**/ / / / /**

**Review please! I'm kind of wondering how I'm doing with writing the Asgardians contrasted with the earthlings as far as their speech patterns and stuff...**

**And yes, I know I said Tony made the special shackles. I dont actually know where they came from, but shield and/or stark making them for that seemed plausible. Lmk if u guys know a confirmed origin for those**


	15. Performance Issues

_**DO NOT SKIP THIS A/N. I WILL FIND YOU.**_ **ok gotcha thanks. I could go on with that "omgomg sooo sorry this took forever omg" crap but ima get to the point. This is by far the longest chapter so far but long story short this scene did not go down how I wanted it to. The basic stuff is there, but its not perfect. I feel like somethings coming up short, but its like writers block and I cant tell what it is. **

**So after days of deliberation I decided to post this and see how it is received. I would say no 'flames' plz, but constructive criticism is ALWAYS good. Do your worst. If you find ways to make me not suck at writing, I will make note and update the chapter accordingly as well.**

**/ / / / / / / / **

Nick Fury stood before the group as a plethora of screens appeared in an arc around him. They came to life with an assortment of images of Loki, the attack on Manhattan, and the Tesseract. He snatched a holographic image of the cube from its display and held it out before the Avengers. They were all suited up for battle with the exception of Bruce, who sat quietly at the conference table, rubbing his hands in the way he always did when he felt anxious. Bruce kept his attention on Director Fury, who was briefing the team one last time before they were to move out. A map of the Rockies flickered to life on a screen behind him. The hologram-cube glowed softly just like the real thing, as if teasing them from wherever it was hiding. It was almost like he was actually holding it. _Almost..._

"Based on the signal detected and the location confirmed by our StarSeeker team, the cube arrived back on earth sometime in the late evening after the situation in Manhattan had been resolved. It and whomever controlled it at the time are believed to have landed near the clearing, _here_, scouted by our team yesterday afternoon," he pointed his free hand to a spot on the map where a luminous blue circle appeared.

"But it's probably not still there. Even _he_ wouldn't be that stupid to sit around there with some forest friends and wait for us to pick him up," Tony said with a roll of his eyes.

Fury continued his talk with an impatient look that said _I was getting to that, Stark_, "Hostiles - and by hostiles I'm sure you're aware that I mean Loki and possible accomplices - attacked and killed an agent at the scene. But the Tesseract was never sighted, and its _current location_ cannot be confirmed."

"And Tony," he added with an additional glare that was intense even without two eyes, "I would watch your mouth if I were you. Loki is a very intelligent individual. We need to stay on our guard."

"Plus," Clint interrupted sarcastically, "Thor would kick your ass if he knew you said that about Loki."

For once, Tony ignored him with a roll of his eyes and stayed somewhat with the issue at hand, "Do we know if Thor's back, too? I'm hoping Real Power there hasn't sweet-talked him over to the dark side."

Natasha addressed him cooly, "There was a sudden, isolated storm in the area that night, and Dr. Foster's disappearance can't be a coincidence, so it's a likely possibility that Thor has in fact returned. The issue now is we don't know who is in possession of the Tesseract, or where it is."

"So what happens if the Wonder Twins take off and disappear with it? Who knows what Loki's done with his...thingy," Tony rubbed his arc reactor uncomfortably while Clint alternated between glaring at him and the carpet, "Then we'll never find it."

"That's where you come in, Dr. Banner," Fury continued on, "I want you to run the algorithms again to trace the cube's gamma signature so we can narrow down the search area." Bruce nodded to him, looking a little relieved at his role.

"And the rest of you: ready the Quinjet and be prepared to move out towards the signal origin. We'll start there. I'm sending out another scouting team to cover local urban areas while we scan for the cube. As soon as Dr. Banner locates it, we'll move in."

The group started to stand and leave the room, and Bruce had almost made it out the door when Fury's voice stopped them one more time.

"Captain."

Steve and the others turned to face him, "Yes, sir?"

"This war is not over yet, and we don't know what we'll be up against. As a precautionary measure I will be sending agents armed with Phase 2 weapons to accompany you in the jets, should things get... out of hand. I know it's not your favorite thing right now, but it's our only option. We cannot afford to lose Loki or the cube again. I hope you don't mind." It wasn't a question, though, and Steve knew it.

"No, sir," he said, real concern creasing his handsome face, "Thank you."

**/ / /,. / / / / / / / /**

_Gods, these humans were persistent_. For nearly ten minutes, it must have been, the Jessica Marx girl had been quizzing him. At first Loki had seen it as pestering, but something about her - maybe it was the look in her chocolate-brown eyes, or maybe it was that when he did say something she stopped talking and actually _listened_ - made it seem like she _cared_. Either way, against his better judgement he'd caved, and it felt strangely relieving to say some things aloud, even if only to a mortal. It kept the thoughts of the Other away for now, at least. He didn't plan on telling her about _that_.

"So, how come you're upset about Thor and living in Asgard if you didn't like the Jotuns?" Jessica was sitting near him in one of the chairs in the corner of the sunroom, (_but just out of arm's reach - interest did not mean trust_) and had become enthralled by the stories he was telling of his world(s). It felt a little like prying, but he seemed like he needed to talk, too.

"Asgard is a beautiful realm. It's no Vanaheim - but it's similar. It is true that I planned to make war with the Jotuns, but that cannot change my heritage," He took a breath, remembering that night on the Bifrost that seemed to be ages ago. It was ironic, he thought, that the destruction of the Bifrost was the only thing keeping Odin from coming and snatching him away again. _It must be driving Heimdall to madness_, he thought with a bitter smirk.

"Regardless of what Thor tells you, I was not _adopted_, I was _stolen_," he hissed, "Jotunheim and Asgard were at war, and when Odin won he took me, along with the Casket of Ancient Winters, back to Asgard as well," his hands clenched into fists, knuckles whitening even more. He was not aware at this point how much he was unloading, "I was raised to believe I could be king. _Would_ be a king. But it was my own lack of observation that didn't allow me to see why _Thor_ was always favored."

"Well... at least you're technically royalty in two different worlds. That's got to count for something," she said slowly and with a smile.

_This human was so infuriatingly positive_.

"I know it's not, like, to the same scale, but sometimes I wish I lived ...somewhere else, too. When I found out I wouldn't be near Rachel anymore, I didn't even know how to handle it," she laughed without any humor at all, "And then when my family had to move for my dad's job, I was really excited for the opportunity to come here for a while, but..." she gestured vaguely, "Sometimes I feel like they were even happy I didn't come along with them. I mean, my mom worries a lot but I don't think that means they _care_. Does that make sense? But anyways, Asgard doesn't sound so bad if you do go live there again."

She lowered her voice cautiously, "What is going to happen to you in Asgard? I mean, now that..." she wasn't quite sure how to put it nicely.

_What is going to happen to you in Asgard? Excellent question, mortal_. He hadn't really thought about it lately, given that he wasn't planning on returning to Asgard for a long, long time. He'd supposed that Odin would want him banished (once he had been tortured sufficiently) or destroyed.

He was mere inches from telling the mortal another response he'd crafted automatically - when an image found its way back into his mind, blinding as the sun yet black as night, and the full weight of last night's dream came crashing down at her question hanging in the air.

_What's going to happen to you?_

**_~They say He courts Death, Odinson. And as I have sworn to Him, we shall give Her quite a show tonight. ~_**

The memory shocked his silver tongue into silence and sent an involuntary shiver down his back. That had been no ordinary dream, it was a warning. _No, not a warning - a taunt; a sentence_. Loki felt his magic spark and flex automatically (but unsteadily) when the vision set off a cold tremble in his mind. (_How dare they threaten him for this, when it was he who had been betrayed. How dare the Other blame him for failure, when it was not his forces who had fallen to a mere six defenders..._)

Before the anger (and restless fear) carried him away completely, he seemed to remember that Jessica was there as well. He looked up when he heard her wicker chair complain loudly as she nearly flattened herself against its back. He looked back down to find that one of his hands had tightened around his staff reflexively in fear and frustration. And it was blue. _Damn._

He fought to get the unruly magic under control again (more easily so than last time, thank the gods), and looked up at Jessica with something close to a sneer at her obvious distress at the sudden change, "So you _do_ think me a monster? Liar."

She shook her head, tossing her brown curls back and forth nervously, "No. I don't. You're not. You just seemed... mad," Her eyes flitted to the blade that had leveled at her almost automatically.

_oh_. Loki looked at it, sensing she spoke the truth and realizing he'd come off much more hostile than he intended. And more importantly, much more hostile than someone who is supposed to be gaining trust and '_playing nice_' ought to come off, he scolded himself.

"I apologize," he straightened the scepter up again, and she visibly relaxed.

In the kitchen, Thor gagged on a gulp of coffee in surprise (and most of it ended up coming out his nose). Loki _never_ said those words aloud, to _anyone_. _Ever._

"Uh, it's okay, I guess..." Jess wished he'd put that scepter away (or at least not gesticulate whilst holding sharp objects), but wasn't about to be the one to ask him to part with it. He definitely had some issues, but he was kinda scary and in her opinion the world(s) had already taken a lot of stuff from him._ At least it isn't a gun_, she thought, and his anger didn't seem to be directed at her, so she continued but switched the topic away from Asgard.

"So I have to ask, why our planet, then?" Jess said quietly.

Before he could come up with a good story for _that_ one, another Midgardian woman, Rachel, appeared in the sunroom doorway, completely oblivious to their conversation. She bounced excitedly as she relayed the news, "Hey, um, Jane said that we can, like, see if their whatchamacallit works now, if you want to come watch. I'm, like, getting a snack first." She walked back to the others in the kitchen.

Loki looked on blankly and said, "I believe she was attempting to communicate with us," with more than a little sarcasm.

Jess started to say, "Hey, that's my friend," but started laughing instead and ended up making what she called a 'blonde joke'. Loki wasn't sure what a blonde joke was for, but he liked them.

**/ / / / / / /. / /**

"Don't sit too close," Jane said warily, "And wish me luck. I'm pretty sure no one has ever done this before, so don't freak out if it doesn't work at first." Jane had managed to patch the Tesseract's casing-slash-portal device together (in what she thought was the correct way) with whatever tools Rachel had found in the garage. All that remained now was to try it out. She carefully set the casing down on the basement floor. Jess and Rachel sat down on the leather couch, across from Jane's setup where the coffee table used to be.

Loki followed and stood silently behind the sofa, of course appearing utterly bored with the mortals' activities. In reality, he was immensely curious as to what the outcome of their little experiment would be. His mind was already buzzing again with excitement at the possibility that a working cosmic cube was within his reach, as well as anxiousness as to whether he would be ready to reach it if an opportunity presented itself.

Thor knelt next to Jane and carefully guided her through safely inserting the Tesseract into it's casing without vaporizing herself. Loki offered to tell her how exactly to vaporize herself, should she ever feel compelled to. Thor fumed and shot his brother a stormy, angry glare, but again kept his temper in check for Jane and turned back to helping her. That was all fine with Loki; he'd expected Thor to ignore him again. Because if he continued to ignore, pressure built up. And eventually he would boil over.

"You know how to work this thing, right Thor?" Jane said as she sealed the glass cylinder with the Tesseract inside.

"Yes, to an extent. I do not understand its workings as completely as _some_," he glanced at Loki, "but I do know how to travel by it. Shall I attempt now?"

"Sure, it should be ready," Jane checked the golden frame one more time, "But be careful, and don't go too far the first time," She gave Thor a hug and retreated back out of the center of the room to where the others waited. Thor grasped both handles in his large fists, and stood with the casing to face the group. Concentrating, he examined it for a moment, and then gave both handles a strong twist. At once the cube, the casing, and Thor all began to glow, as if an eerie blue fire had consumed him. A moment later they disappeared, like he had been sucked into space itself.

Jane gasped, and Jess and Rachel looked on in disbelief. What they witnessed was another of the strange events (seemingly out of some sci-fi novel) that accompanied the strangers that had landed in their backyard two days ago. Things like these weren't even supposed to be real, and Jane Foster had just put one together in a basement with a couple of college girls and a couple of aliens (who weren't supposed to be real, either).

The girls (and Loki) waited anxiously for any sign that Thor had been able to travel safely. Jane counted off the agonizing seconds silently, praying that he was okay.

_1. . . 2. . . 3. . . 4. . . 5. . . 6. . ._

Suddenly, the group heard an unnatural noise upstairs, like a fire and a howling wind, and then the clomp of a pair of heavy boots hitting the wooden floor. They let out a collective breath and the girls hurried to the base of the stairs. A few moments later, to their relief, Thor appeared in the doorway and walked downstairs, the casing dangling from one hand and a snack from the kitchen in the other.

The girls cheered, Loki wasn't sure how to feel, and Thor hugged Jane gently when he reached the basement, "I thank you, Jane. You have done us and your people a great service."

For the rest of the morning and the whole afternoon, they continued to run trials with the Tesseract, testing its ability to transport Thor various distances. It soon became clear that something was wrong, as the portal did not seem to work over great distances at all.

**/ / / / / / / / / /**

A greater distance than Thor could have travelled and farther away than the mortals ever could have imagined, a dark, dark presence felt a disturbance ripple through the fabric of the universe. Through the fabric of His universe, like tiny circles sliding with magic through a pond far away, then vanishing only to recur a few moments later. Like radio waves that weren't quite connecting.

He cast His awareness out, feeling again for the magic to pulse. It did, and this time the signature was distinct, He was sure of it.

**/ / / / / / / / / / **

"I bet it's because there's too much complex matter in the way," Jane concluded after Thor returned from another unsuccessful run, "I mean, for big trips over space the Bifrost opened into the middle of the desert, and you said you left New York by going to a clearing near Central Park. Here we have a house over our heads and we're surrounded by trees. The casing's still not perfect, but the fact that we don't have a clear shot isn't helping."

Jess, who had gotten off the phone from ordering some dinner, chimed in, "Well, this city's a mile high, and the air is thinner up here near the mountains. If we could find an open area it might work."

Jane nodded thoughtfully, "It probably would. It's all forest around here, though, and I don't think it would be a good idea to go hunting for a spot closer to the city."

"Yeah, people would notice. And we shouldn't go back to the clearing he landed in before," Jess shuddered.

Loki almost rolled his eyes. _They possess the most powerful object in the known universe, but not the magical knowledge necessary to work around a couple of infernal_ trees? It was tragic, really. He was sure with his magic at its normal strength he could have persuaded the trees to bow and step aside, but it wouldn't help him now, anyways. Oh no, _time_ would help him now.

The doorbell rang, the deep chime echoing through the house, interrupting whatever thoughts they were having about the Tesseract.

"Yay! Pizza's here!" Rachel said.

Jess rummaged through her backpack until she found money to pay for her share of the dinner, and jumped up off the sofa to go retrieve it.

"What is pizza?" Thor asked.

"You'll like it," Jane assured them, and Rachel explained pizza while Jess ran off towards the foyer to get it.

She opened the door and a bored-looking college kid looked up, smiled shyly, and held out the pizzas.

"Thanks," she said quietly, and reached out to take them, avoiding his gaze. In doing so she looked over his shoulder, and froze in her tracks.

_That wasn't there before_. She _knew_ that wasn't there before.

After a few seconds of her being frozen like an ice sculpture, the boy cleared his throat awkwardly and pushed the boxes into her arms.

"That'll be $15.97, ma'am," he said, a little confused. Jess took the boxes without looking at him. She handed him a $20 and retreated into the house without waiting for the change, her pulse pounding loudly in her ears. The pizza man shrugged, walked back to his shabby delivery car, and sputtered away without ever noticing the sleek black van that had parked across the street.

Jess peeped out at it through the blinds in the front window, holding her breath. The van hadn't moved, and she couldn't see what the driver was doing because of the shiny black sunglasses he (and the man next to him) wore. But she was willing to bet anything they were staring straight back at her.

**/ / / / / / / / **

**so if you see something, say something, and I will hopefully fix something. Until I find something better the title is Tony's jab at Loki in Avengers, or if its ok I guess it can stay. Leave an honest review, you guys. It only takes a second and its basically anonymous for you so who cares, right? Theres only a few chapters to go probably. Ive reviewed stories in spanish, and im not even fluent in spanish**


	16. Thunderstruck

**Hi guys! I know a lot of you like to skip these to get to the story (:D) so I'll keep this one short...IT'S IMPORTANT!**

**Firstly, you guys have been great and I really want the writing feedback I came for, so from this point on we're going to play a little game: **_If you are an author and you leave a specific, quality, honest review on my writing, good or bad, I will follow the link to your profile and leave a review on part of one of your stories, too, as soon as I can. _

**See? Everybody wins. (and if you're not an author you can still leave something, of course. Take something, leave something, right?) And if my idea works, I'll get around to all of you ASAP and hopefully the next chapter will be up faster too.**

**I don't own Marvel. **

**Ok lets go.**

**/ / / / / / / /**

The agent pushed the van into park and shut off the engine. He'd been out scouting urban areas with his partner as Director Fury had ordered, when the call had come in that more signals consistent with those previously traced to the Tesseract had been detected. Their vehicle had been the closest to the origin, so he and his partner had been ordered to move in and investigate.

He was a bit surprised when their GPS led them to a twisting neighborhood road near the edge of the mountains, filled with adorable civilian houses. It was within a few clicks of the clearing where the earlier incident had occurred, but still. The home which Bruce Banner swore had been emitting spurts of gamma radiation all afternoon was a cute golden house nestled perfectly into a mountainside. It didn't exactly look like a secret headquarters, but, following orders, the pair had driven out to investigate it regardless.

The equipment they could carry in the van was limited, so they observed the house from a distance and gathered what they could. Their thermal imagery sensors showed four people inside (or five, if one of them had a severe case of hypothermia- they assumed it was a glitch). But the only suspicious thing so far was that there was only one two-seater Toyota in the driveway - not enough for four people up in the mountains.

So far, no one had gone in or come out of the particular house currently under observation. Now though, as luck would have it, a pizza delivery car sputtered loudly into the driveway and squeaked to a stop. Both agents watched, alert, as the pizza man got out of the car and walked onto the porch to ring the doorbell. For a moment their spirits lifted when a young woman opened the door, only to fall again when they saw it was not Jane Foster. Oddly, it wasn't even one of the listed owners of the house.

Then something peculiar happened. The young woman, who had not been in any of their records and probably shouldn't have known they even existed, froze on the spot. She stared at them in shock for a few long moments, as if she knew exactly who they were, and then retreated into the house looking like she had just seen a ghost. The agents glanced at each other, and then turned back to watching the house with piqued interest. The blinds in the front window crinkled slightly, and then returned to normal as the girl who had been looking through them walked away.

The agents glanced at each other again. Something was definitely wrong here. Sure, it was lonely and quiet up on these mountain roads, but a normal person still wouldn't panic and retreat if they saw a car parked outside.

The driver nodded to the second agent, who picked up the two-way radio to make the call. This was definitely the right place.

_"Attention all units - suspicions on Goldilocks confirmed. Hostiles not yet sighted. Possible civilian accomplices. Advising move in and proceed with operation 37-beta. Over."_

**/ / / / / / / / / / /**

"Guys!" Jess ran back into the living room and dropped the pizzas onto the sofa. Thor grabbed one and started eating it.

"There's a van parked right outside. And they're _watching_ us!" she gasped.

"Who's watching us?" Jane asked, though she knew perfectly well who. Thor put the pizza down and strode to the front window, peeping through the blinds as Jess had done.

"It's probably Shield or something. They look like the freaking M.I.B.'s!" Jess said, running her fingers through her hair. _Holy CRAP_. Thor returned from the foyer looking just as concerned as she felt.

"They do resemble your government's intelligence agents, and their presence here would not be uncalled for. They most likely seek Loki, or Lady Jane." Loki's face was hard to read, but they could tell he was thinking hard.

"What are we gonna do?" Rachel said, "You're not gonna, like, have another fight with them, right?"

Thor shook his head, "I should like to avoid it. They are displeased that my brother has... returned for the time being, but I have sworn to take him before my father in Asgard. As they demonstrated yesterday they will show him no mercy. If Loki is well enough, I feel it best if the two of us vacate this residence."

"What? You're just gonna leave?" Rachel said, blue eyes widening. Even Loki looked a little shocked; running away wasn't Thor's style.

"Your government has quarrel with Loki, but these people are my friends and they do not understand what it is they meddle with. I do not wish to harm them."

Jess looked at him for a moment and felt some of the panic fade away. _At least he seems to have a plan_. She sank down onto the sofa next to Rachel, "So, where are we going then?"

"Uh, wait a second - where are _WE_ going? You're nuts," Rachel interjected before he could answer.

Jane glanced doubtfully at her but nodded to Thor and Jess, "Yeah, _we_. Shield's probably onto me too, you know, because I left their assignment."

"Plus, we're all guilty of harboring a felon now," Jess added, looking sympathetically at Loki, "And we can't just ditch him. We have to go."

Rachel looked like she might faint. Thor considered the group for a moment, and finally nodded, "It is settled, then. You have taken on great personal risk to aid my brother and myself, and I thank you for that. As for where we are going, Loki and I must reach Asgard as soon as possible. I believe it best if we evade your government's warriors for the time being, and then do as Lady Jane has suggested and attempt to reach higher open ground, where our bridge to the other realms will reach unbarred. They cannot pursue us then."

"I can't believe this! How are we even going to get out?" Rachel said incredulously, "And it's getting dark!" But even as she said it she realized she'd already been outvoted.

"Rachel, we can't stay here," Jane said, getting to her feet, her fingers intertwined with Thor's, "I'm so sorry you guys got dragged into all this, but this is serious and we have to go now. These Shield guys don't mess around," Her eyes fluttered nervously, and Thor placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, "I'm going to go pack a bag real quick."

Jess followed suit and ran upstairs to get her own backpack, her mind racing. As she rounded the corner to the loft room at the end of the hall, she could have sworn she heard the low drone of a helicopter flying by. _All the more reason to hurry_. She flung open the door and looked around the mess of the room. Her suitcase was laying open and empty at the corner of the futon bed; its contents had been unpacked and folded onto the nearby shelves.

The wall-mounted TV was still on from when she had been watching last night, and now it was airing some special broadcast about Manhattan. The reporter was describing the attack for the hundredth time, since they hadn't received any new information but couldn't really talk about anything else. Jess heard them use the word "monster" five times in the stupid report. She frowned and switched it off.

She spotted her backpack slumped against a pillow on the futon bed. She reached it and set to work emptying all the contents out, making space for whatever they would need to bring for...wherever they had to go. It seemed kind of crazy, going on the run like this. But then again, as Jane had said these guys didn't mess around - one of their buddies had almost shot her yesterday, and she was not excited to meet up with them again.

She reluctantly pulled her laptop out of the backpack sleeve last, but then put it back into place after some quick consideration. _If _ they got away, Shield would search the house, and the less they knew about who she was, the better. Jess carried the near-empty backpack over to the shelves in the corner of the room and hastily shoved some extra clothes in. She grabbed her cell phone and the bag and turned to go downstairs, flipping the lights off as she went.

**/ / / / / / /**

Loki had re-bandaged his wound, changed back into his worn Asgardian clothing, and donned the armor, too, for good measure. He wasn't opposed to Thor making them leave, he only wished he had more confidence that his magic would cooperate when the time came. _Besides, we're playing nice_, he repeated to himself again, with less certainty every time.

He stepped back into the living room just as Jessica Marx rushed back downstairs, her black traveling bag already slung over her shoulder. She, Thor, and Jane all seemed to be doing their best to plan an escape, he observed, but the other Midgardian girl was still in a state of panic.

"This is crazy! You're crazy! My parents are _going to kill me!_" Rachel tried to say to Jessica, who was helping Thor shove granola bars into her bag.

Right on cue, they saw a spotlight shine through the front foyer window, disrupting the darkness. A helicopter could be heard clearly (it was nearly overhead now) and a stern voice boomed through a megaphone from it's cockpit.

_"ATTENTION: YOU ARE UNDER ARREST. STEP OUTSIDE SLOWLY WITH YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR. IF YOU DO NOT COMPLY, WE ARE PREPARED TO USE DEADLY FORCE - WE WILL SHOOT YOU ON SIGHT."_

Jess zipped up the backpack and gestured to the sky, "Rachel, _these people_ are going to kill us - for real! We have to go!" Rachel finally gave up and nodded. Obviously, turning themselves in was not an option with psycho guy over there. She scribbled an apologetic note to her parents and left it on the kitchen table, should they come home before she did. _If_ she came home.

**/ / / / / / / /**

Loki cautiously approached one of the front windows and squinted to see through the blinds. Outside he saw the black vehicle parked across the street as Jessica had said, except now its driver had the window down and his gun trained on the house. One other vehicle had pulled up next to that one, and in addition one of the noisy flying machines was circling overhead.

There weren't many agents present now, but more were on their way; he was sure of it. He gripped his staff and was again thinking about how wonderful it would be to kill all of them, when he felt a heavy hand land on his shoulder.

He turned around to face Thor, who had approached in a rather noisy uneven way that Loki knew was his attempt at being cautious. Thor wore a sad, almost apologetic look on his face that he was trying to keep stern.

"How many are there?" was all he said.

"Two automobiles and one helicopter," Loki said stiffly. He'd learned the words from Barton.

Thor nodded and squinted out the window to see what a helicopter meant. He turned back to Loki, "You have wronged these people, but that does not mean we must fight them today. We are evading them now, but you shall still return to Asgard when we are able. You are wounded, but that does not mean you are pardoned. Do you understand, brother?"

"I'm not y-"

"LOKI, then."

"Yes," he said darkly, "and you needn't talk to me as if I am your _pet_."

Thor ignored his snide comment, "Good. I know that you have been led astray, but the Allfather shall show mercy." Again, Loki sensed he was reassuring himself more than anyone.

"We must go now if we wish to avoid a battle. Perhaps we are able to slip out the cellar door we came in through, and use the forest as cover until we reach ground suitable to use the Tesseract. Are you with us, br-...Loki?"

He nodded curtly, and followed Thor out of the front room and back to the kitchen. Jane handed the Tesseract in its casing to Thor, who hefted Mjolnir up in his other hand. She and the other Midgardian girls looked to him nervously, waiting for him to lead on. The Shield personnel issued a final angry warning from the helicopter, and the group silently hurried down the basement stairs.

Rachel inched open the basement door and poked her head outside. No one was in sight, but they could hear the helicopter circling and the sound of a hard kick snapping the front door off its hinges. Angry shouts and orders being called filled the upstairs. They walked outside, underneath the back deck now, with Thor in the lead and Jane by his side. He stopped at the edge of the deck over them and motioned for the others to come forward.

"Run to that grouping of trees and wait for me there," he gestured with Mjolnir to the beginnings of the thick aspen forest down the mountainside, "If we can cross this valley," he again gestured down to the thick forest, "perhaps the mountaintop on the opposite side will provide suitable clearance for the cube's bridge." The girls nodded, glad someone seemed to have a plan for getting them out alive.

"Loki, go with them, but let me remind you that you have sworn to bring them no harm. If you break this promise I _shall_ turn you over to their government, if I am not forced to kill you. Is that understood?"

Loki rolled his eyes and nodded. _Thor mustn't actually think me that stupid - to threaten his petty mortals when I'm in this position?_ No, Loki had no intention of that. _Yet._

"Keep your word, Loki. I would not do this if I saw another way... Go now, I will attempt to drive the government's warriors away, so they do not engage us in battle."

"Wouldn't _that_ be a shame," Loki stroked the blade of his staff and smiled devilishly. Thor glared at him but didn't say anything further.

Jane hugged him tightly one more time, before leading the other girls in a run down the hill to the thicker valley forest. Loki reluctantly followed gripping his scepter in one hand and his side in the other.

**/ / / / /**

The helicopter's agents spotted movement near the back of the house, and swung the spotlight around just as the group disappeared into the thicker trees down the mountainside. They radioed for the agents on the ground to move in, and one of the vans parked on the street screeched forward into the yard as ordered.

The chopper's copilot raised his binoculars to scan the forest - just in time to be blinded by a flash of lightning that seemed impossibly close. The pilot lurched the helicopter back away from the house. The carefully aimed lightning shot not at the agents, but through a massive tree bordering the front yard. Fire erupted from it's trunk, and it fell across the yard with an impact that made the ground tremble. It intentionally missed all the personnel, but the flaming tree successfully blocked the van's path to the backyard (where the group was making their escape).

The pilots watched in disbelief as black storm clouds gathered above them at an impossible rate. Within half a minute the chopper was being battered with a pounding, unrelenting torrent of rain. The winds picked up so much that they were blown around like a feather in a breeze, and the pilot was finally forced to pull the helicopter even further away from the house to get out of the weather.

**/ / / / /**

With the agents distracted, Thor lowered Mjolnir and followed the others down into the forest. He was relieved to find them waiting, hunkered down in the thick brush, unharmed. It was dark out; they could barely see the rising stars through the trees. Jess had packed a flashlight, but didn't dare use it now. Thor left the storm clouds over the Midgardian house where they were; it would buy him more time and the rain would eventually put out the fire he'd caused. Jane slipped her small hand into his and Loki followed along behind them as he led them wordlessly down the mountainside.

They continued on, being as quiet as they could, and before long they reached the bottom of the valley. The trees were thick and gold, and once in a while they heard an owl hooting as they brushed their way through the summer leaves. Periodically, the droning helicopter would appear overhead as its searchlight swept systematically though the forest. Loki smiled to himself despite his situation; he could almost see the rage on Fury's face when he found out that they had slipped away - again.

Sometime in the middle of the night, they reached the base of the mountains framing the valley. More helicopters joined in the sweeping search as more of Shield's armada arrived in the area. Evading one noisy machine was easy, Thor thought, but now they had brought many. They might even be gathering his fellow Avengers, and he certainly didn't want to be forced to confront them. Not now.

He finally decided that the group would stay out of the forest and hide out for the night. They came across a rocky cave hollowed out of the mountain by a river long ago, and quickly ducked inside just as two of the choppers swung by for another pass right overhead. It wasn't exactly roomy, but it wasn't visible from the air, either, and that was what counted.

After a long time of waiting, one by one they slipped into sleep in the dark silence of the cave.

** / / / / / / / /**

**So Shield's closing in, the Avengers are on their way, our little group is hiding out, and Loki's waiting to make a move...what do you think? and someone please think of a more catchy title  
**

**Don't forget the deal! **


	17. Two Evils

**Hi! I wanted to post this last night, but the site wouldn't load D: ... I almost cried, but now its working again so yay!**

**Happy summer everybody! Where I live school's out, so now faster updates hopefully :) - though I can't believe how far I've gone and how close I'm coming to finishing up ... I'll be kind of sad, I think, I'm having so much fun :)**

**I hope you're enjoying it too, and please let me know why or why not (review!)**

****and FYI I made some slight improvements to Ch1 if you want to check that out...just little things..**

**I don't own marvel. Whatever :P**

**/ / / / / / / /**

_It was darker than the black of the abyss, but regardless he had never seen anything quite so clearly. _

Far away, he felt a tug of deja vu at the sickening familiarity of the sight.

_And he was equipped not only with sight, but with the eerie sixth sense of the cunning mind that can taste the nature of an image just as well as the third eye can hold it in place. It was rather cruel, with an almost clairvoyant sensation of the impending events._

_Loki watched - and didn't quite manage to keep his face neutral this time as he did so - as a scarred, mangled, hooded form stepped out of the darkness and into his field of vision (he would not go so far as to call it _ 'the light'_). The Other circled around him at a slow, measured pace, rasping in a breath that made the hairs on the back of his neck prickle, and eventually spoke. Though he needn't have spoken at all - Loki recalled what he would say._

_But he did. The shuffling footsteps halted directly behind Loki, and this time he turned just enough to face that horrible creature. He saw the Tesseract, glowing, balanced in its terrible hands. A dark, bloody smile filled its gruesome face, and the scathing, raspy voice that sounded like the wind that might stir in Helheim floated towards him._

_"You have failed, Asgardian." It was a simple statement, with an air to it that said so much more. Without moving, the Other continued._

_"He is very displeased, you know. He had not fathomed such...embarrassing failure would arise from such a... promising young leader's quest." Loki again searched for a retort, only to find that he was still unable to speak - the cursed iron muzzle was latched to his jaw once more, barring his best line of defense. Even more, he found he couldn't so much as reach to pry it off, or even turn away for that matter. It was as if he was paralyzed, frozen in place. Panic flew in and tightened his throat, but the Other seemed to take no notice as he continued on._

_"You must, and will, pay for this grave error, Asgardian. It is my duty to see to it that He not witness this caliber of incompetence."_

_Loki had the unfortunate displeasure of knowing what was coming, as he had from the moment he'd arrived back... wherever he was in the depths of his mind. Location was not at the forefront of his thoughts at the moment. Panic was replaced by a faraway sense of helplessness when he found no response from his magic, and he was still bound in place by some unseen force._

_The Other grinned wider, revealing bloody, jagged teeth below his hood. Loki stared at him, bracing himself for what he knew was coming._

_"They say He courts Death, Odinson. And as I have sworn to Him, we shall give Her quite a show tonight."_

_The darkness exploded into blue flames._

**/ / / / /**

Green eyes snapped open in the dark. (It was still dark, Loki observed, but not _that_ dark.) He was in a cave. It was a small cave, and he could make out a few worn rock formations protruding from the ceiling and floor, closing the sides. The surface of the rock was damp and gritty, sprinkled with dirt and moss.

He vaguely remembered liking caves as a child in Asgard. The silence. The space to _think_. He still liked them. But he'd like them if he were _alone_. Not packed tightly like livestock into one with his oaf of a brother and a group of foolish mortals. (His brother had grown to snore like one of the bears which was meant to inhabit this place; one of the Midgardians had slumped over in her sleep and he was sure she was drooling on his shoulder plate.)

He slowly relaxed his tense body back against the grimy rock wall. The others were all asleep, it seemed, as he could hear Thor's constant snoring and one of the Midgardians mumble something unintelligible. Relief wanted to parade in upon his waking because here the Other was only a dream, and he was left unharmed - but he wouldn't let it because the fact was he knew it _wasn't_ just a dream.

_It's a warning. A taunt. I'm being toyed with._

He thought about getting up, climbing out of the cave to get some fresh air, but quickly decided against it. It was too cramped, he'd never get out without waking the others, and the burning ache in his side was set on deterring him from moving anywhere.

He snapped his fingers as quietly as he could, and a small blue wisp appeared between them. He pressed it to his bandaged wound, trying to convince the flesh to knit itself back together. It was only a weak, simple magic, but it was improvement. So he sat in the dark, willing his magic to recover, waiting for dawn to break outside.

**/ / / / / **

Far away, a dark presence was waiting, as well. He had no hope of dawn breaking, though. Where He laid in wait, there was no sun.

Thanos brooded in his far corner of the universe, taking in the pinprick stars from his perch on the barren, jagged rock. Finally, the Other materialized out of the shadows and joined Him.

"The pulsings of the cube have grown stronger...Have they not, my liege?," he rasped, "But it lies in silence now...I fear...he intends to journey away...soon."

"_You fear!_ But you do not act," Thanos snarled at the creature. It bowed its head submissively.

"Sir...I have threatened-"

"SILENCE! That cube was to be _mine_. The universe was to be _mine_. And that Asgardian deserves to _suffer_." The Other kept his head bowed, not even daring to nod in agreement.

"You will go and retrieve the cube. Bring the Asgardian as well. And if it _slips away_ again, be sure that you shall join him in his suffering."

The Other inclined his head to face Thanos, "He is...out of our reach...my lord...without the cube-"

"I have gathered enough dark energy for but one journey to the world where he resides. One journey only. You cannot return to us without the cube, and you would not be wise to try," Thanos grinned.

**/ / / / / / / / /**

"Progress report?" Tony yawned, removing his helmet so his voice sounded normal. They were up on the Helicarrier now, and the waiting was driving him insane. He was suited up, standing on the edge of a Quinjet's ramp. Shield only had two of them, and the other one had been pretty badly damaged when it fell out of the sky in New York. (They'd made hasty repairs to that one, which a select group of Shield's agents would be piloting to back them up, should anything go badly.) He was hoping it would be ready to fly soon.

He could have flown down to Colorado himself, obviously, but he wanted to conserve the suit's power - and he was sure he wasn't the only one who wanted to take a crack at Loki after what happened to Phil. The Helicarrier was slowly making its way in the right direction, but they could get there much faster once they launched in the Quinjets.

"No more signals from Colorado," Natasha replied as she strode by to help load Phase 2 backup into the second jet. Rogers sure didn't like it, but Fury insisted on having the experimental weapons on hand in case they were needed.

"But our scout team there saw something suspicious and moved in," she continued, "Loki and whoever else was inside that house were spotted escaping into the forest. Looks like your location tracing was correct, Dr. Banner. Well done." Bruce smiled sheepishly from his seat near Tony.

"And they found out Thor's in town. I'm sure Director Fury told you what happened?" she asked as she set the weapons down and stepped back out of the plane. Tony exchanged a glance with Bruce.

"Yeah. He said Thor went ballistic and tried to blow their chopper out of the sky. I guess Loki finally got to him, huh?"

"Um, he may have exaggerated on that - he's pretty pissed at the team for not finding Loki yet," Natasha replied, "No one was hurt when Thor caused that storm."

"So you think he wasn't actually trying to electrocute anybody?" Bruce said.

"I think he wanted to scare them off, not hurt them. Hopefully he's still on our side, but he's not giving Loki up."

"If he's not giving up Loki, he's not on our side," Clint said stiffly, appearing next to the trio. Bruce visibly jerked, but Natasha looked like she had known he was there the whole time.

"You think we should just let him take Loki? To Asgard, right?" Bruce said.

"I heard the Vikings had some sick torture methods," Tony added.

Natasha looked at Clint, and then shook her head, "The cube is our priority now. And something obviously went wrong last time Thor tried to take him away. We can't take that risk."

"Why is he sticking with Thor, anyway?" Tony asked, "Are they suddenly pals again?"

"We don't think so - we're pretty sure Thor is still somewhat in control. The theory is that Loki is staying near the cube to take revenge, or he's badly injured and can't fight Thor."

As if on cue, a technician rushed up and handed a small stack of papers to Agent Romanoff. She skimmed them and nodded approvingly, holding them out for Clint to read, too. Just then, Captain Rogers walked up and peered over their shoulders at the packet.

"Well?" Tony said.

"The blood analysis from the clearing came in. It's not human, and there's a lot of it."

"Is it Thor's?" Bruce asked worriedly. He knew they had some of all the team's DNA on file, for security purposes. (He vividly remembered them taking Thor's sample after he'd arrived; it hadn't been pretty. Thor had been poised and ready to throw an office desk at a cowering technician for "attempting to rob his veins and mortally wound him" before they'd sorted that little misunderstanding out.)

"No, not his."

"Good," Tony scoffed, the suit whirring as he crossed his arms, "Maybe he finally decided to knock some sense into Loki."

"Don't think so," Agent Hill said as she strode up, also reading the report. Bruce raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"There was a lot of blood there, characteristic of a stab wound, _and_ it was all over those manacles," Hill said, looking up at the group.

"Which means it happened _before_ Loki got out of them," Natasha finished for her.

"Precisely," Hill said.

Clint's eyes narrowed, "Which, especially if he's sticking around Thor, means we're probably not the only ones after him."

**/ / / / / / / / **

The first sun streamed through the valley forest and reached the tiny cave's entrance. Thor, slumped against the wall opposite Loki and nearest to the opening, awoke with a grunt. Jane covered her eyes with a sleepy groan and burrowed further under Thor's cape. Loki looked on with amusement.

Jess opened her eyes and blinked in the bright rays of sunlight streaming into the little cave. _At least it's the sun and not a searchlight_, she thought. She sat up straight and rubbed the goosebumps on her arms, teeth chattering. She didn't feel like she'd gotten much sleep at all. Apparently, "summer night" translated to "you _probably_ won't freeze to death" in the Rockies.

She saw Rachel curled up against the wall to her left, bundled tightly in one of the extra jackets Jess had thrown in her backpack before they ran away. Her pin-straight blonde hair was frizzed and dirtied, and the pink blotches around her eyes told Jess she had been crying.

Loki was sitting to Jess' right, so close she was almost touching his shoulder, and seemed more awake than the others. He had his scepter propped against the wall on his other side, and was whispering something she didn't understand while holding a pale hand over his wound. She cautiously leaned over to look at it, and from what she could see it was bleeding less but was still very deep. Whatever magic he was doing was clearly helping, and the pale blue wisp that appeared between his fingers was slowly calming the enflamed red of the flesh.

"Neat," she said. He glanced at her and went back to what he was doing.

Thor stretched and yawned, "We best continue traveling. If we depart for Asgard soon we may be able to avoid conflict with your government, Midgardians." Jess nodded back to him and leaned over to give Rachel an encouraging hug.

"How fares your wound, Loki?" he added, noticing Loki re-bandaging it after using his healing magic again.

"Fine," he replied through gritted teeth. Thor's undying sympathy was the last thing he wanted, especially while he was being dragged off to Asgard for punishment.

Thor gently woke Jane, and reattached the cape she'd been using as a blanket to his shoulders. He stooped down and walked out of the cave into the valley trees. The others followed, emerging from the little opening into a dew-covered aspen forest. The sunrise made the dew droplets sparkle and the trees glow gold; it was almost magical. The forest was completely silent, save for a few twittering birds.

_No choppers...Maybe they're looking in another part of the forest? _

"Is Shield still after us?" Jess asked, looking between Thor and Loki. She was half-expecting a swat team to jump out of the thick bushes, but for now it seemed they had gone undetected.

Thor looked around at the trees and nodded, "It seems we are alone, but they will be here, somewhere. It is best we attempt to depart soon. Stand back," Jess and the others took a couple steps away from Thor as he hefted Mjolnir into the air and began to spin it rapidly. They watched as he was pulled off the ground and flew up into the towering treetops.

He landed gently on a thick limb of one of the taller trees, and looked around to survey the landscape. Their cave was nestled into the mountain across the valley from Rachel's house, and further up the mountainside he could see the thick trees beginning to thin out. And best of all, he saw what had been hidden in the darkness, but could now be clearly seen in the light of day: up the mountainside east of where the cave was, a rocky overlook protruded from the peak's forest.

It wasn't too far up and the terrain looked steep but walkable, if they stayed within the trees and followed a path parallel to the mountain's jagged cliffs. Past the cliffs, the overlook jutted out onto an exposed flat area, free of trees. _Perfect._

Thor flew down from the trees and landed next to the group, "Beyond this cave there lies a clear overlook up the mountainside," he pointed in its general direction, "We are likely able to reach it before midday, and I believe it would suffice for our portal device. Do you believe so, Jane?" He started to lead the group up the hill, brushing aside the thick foliage.

"Yeah, if there's no trees there it might work," she went after him, "Like I said, I'm pretty sure our problem is complex matter getting in the way of the signal, so the less trees the better chance we have. The altitude can't hurt, either," she smiled, even though it was becoming obvious that the Tesseract was the only thing the altitude wouldn't hurt. The thin air was just making everyone else feel out of breath.

Jess grinned back at her, and carefully followed Rachel over the cave entrance and up onto the steep hillside. She looked back and noticed Loki hesitating at the bottom.

"Coming?" she said, smiling.

**/ / / **

Loki nodded stiffly, and started to follow them up the steep slope. His heavy boots crunched through the thick leaves and rocky soil. Ahead he could see the glow of the Tesseract from where it hung in Thor's grasp. Jane trailed along behind him, followed by the other two Midgardian girls. Jessica appeared to be trying to cheer the one called Rachel, who was mumbling something through a quiet stream of trembling sobs. _Pathetic. What does _she_ have to fear?_ he thought.

As they continued up the slope, she eventually calmed down and he caught up to the others. Once in a while they would catch a glimpse of the overlook through the trees, and Thor would look back periodically to make sure he was still there. At one point, they saw one of Shield's "helicopters" fly past, and ducked under the thick brush for cover.

Loki hated sneaking through the forest like this; like he was something hunted, bound for the lesser of two evils in Asgard. Like prey. He absolutely hated it. The further they went, the more sure he became that the time to make his move was fast approaching. If he wanted to escape imprisonment (or worse), he would have to go soon, he decided. Magic or no.

Not much later, their path leveled out so that they walked parallel to the sharp cliffs, not far from the overlook across the mountainside. Looking down at the dizzying height, an idea formed in his mind. He wasn't sure if he liked it, or if it would work, but he was running out of time. Loki slowly increased his stride until he was walking ahead of Jessica and Rachel, but behind Jane Foster. He didn't like the idea of fleeing at all, but if he had the Tesseract he would not be prey - and now he saw how to get it.

They couldn't have been more than a hundred feet from the clearing at the overlook when Loki closed the distance between himself and Jane. The ground gave way to the jagged cliffs only a few feet to their right. Mortals, by definition, were easy to kill. _Perhaps_, he thought, he could persuade Thor to hand over the Tesseract without a fight to prevent her _untimely fall._

He sincerely hoped Thor would, because as much as it pained him to admit it to himself, he owed all these Midgardians a debt. Part of him would hate for them to have to see _that._

_But it must be done. Quickly_. He took a deep breath, and silently moved forward to close his hands around Jane's collar. _It's time for some bargaining_, he thought, the devilish mischief creeping into his eyes again.

Thor's back was turned at the moment, so he wouldn't have seen until it was too late. But Loki's fingers had barely brushed her shoulders, when a deafening _CRACK_ blew through the forest behind them. He dropped his hands and spun around, just in time for the following explosion to knock all of them off their feet.

**/ / / / / / /**

**Review! Remember the deal! (and fyi half the next chapter is written so far gaahhh I'm so excited HAPPY SUMMER)**

**And yes, I know Phil's not dead, but the Avengers don't know that (if you haven't heard, google "Agents of Shield" RIGHT FREAKING NOW) :D**


	18. Cold Blood

**Hi everybody! we're getting soosoo close and I would REALLY LOVE some reviews. I wrote this chapter a long time ago, and after hours of tweaking I think it's finally ready for everyone to see. **

**on an unrelated note, I'm excited to see that according to my counter a great many of you are reading from outside the US. that's cool to do creative work and see people all over the world are enjoying it. **

**On that - I apologize if I keep using non-metric units in this story. I do know the metric system, but the one taught in US schools is different, so it just feels more natural when I write. I did the conversions and 100 feet = about 30 meters (and from the earlier chapter 92 degrees F = about 33 degrees C) if any of you care to know. America is just weird like that. Write to Congress and tell them to change the education standards.**

**That is all; I still don't own Marvel.**

**/ / /**

"They've promised that dreams can come true - but forget to mention that nightmares are dreams, too." – Oscar Wilde

**/ / / / / /**

The thunderous blast ripped through the trees, throwing clouds of debris and smoke. Before she could react, the force lifted Jess of her feet and threw her into the air. She landed hard, tumbling across the rocky earth. She shrieked as the ground suddenly slipped away at the edge of the jagged cliffs beside their path, giving way to a sheer two-hundred foot drop.

Loki and Jane were thrown forward, landing on their stomachs in a cloud of dust. Loki rolled away from her, abandoning whatever plans he'd had to threaten her in front of Thor. Whoever had just caused that blast was powerful and wasn't going to let them go anywhere, by the looks of it. The source of the noise was still shrouded by smoke, so he didn't know quite what had happened yet. Loki hauled himself to his feet with a grimace; the impact had just undone whatever repairs his magic had made to his wound, and it felt like it was on fire.

A shrill scream pierced the air behind him, and he turned in time to see one of the Midgardians struggling at the edge of the cliff. She would have gone over it entirely, had it not been for one of the thin saplings stubbornly growing out of the rock that she was now clinging to. Jessica's legs dangled over the drop, and her grip was slipping.

It would have been easy to let her fall, but he lunged towards the cliff and grabbed her wrist anyway, just as her hand fell away. _One less debt I owe_, he figured. And a part of him that didn't show itself much anymore knew his action wasn't only because of the debt a man feels, but because someone had done the same for him once, and he hadn't appreciated it.

Thor stood and stumbled out of some nearby bushes, ready to fight whomever had attacked them, and helped Jane to her feet. He watched Loki rescue the Midgardian in silence, wondering what to make of it. Rachel clambered over to Jess and hugged her as Loki set her down on level ground.

"Ohmygosh are you okay?"

"Yeah," Jess said, getting shakily to her feet, "Thanks, Loki. What was th- "

Jess was interrupted by a cold, rasping laugh drifting from the trees behind them. They turned, and the smoke cleared, wafting upwards through the aspens. Whatever color had remained in Loki's face drained away: A dark silhouette which could only have been the Other became visible, and Loki's mask fell, revealing the fear beneath.

**/ / / / /**

"Eagle Two, are you guys reading this?" Agent Romanoff said, sitting at the controls of the Avengers' Quinjet. She had just heard a loud blast, followed by a monstrous geyser of blue-black smoke erupting into a cloud from a nearby mountainside. Clint sat beside her while the remaining Avengers (minus Thor) stood in the rear of the jet. At her remark, Steve and Tony stepped forward and leaned into the cockpit. (Bruce didn't even want to know.) They were flying in low over the mountains, having launched from the Helicarrier earlier, and their Shield agent backup wasn't far behind.

"Copy. Redirecting heading to West by Northwest," Agent Hill radioed back from the second Quinjet, trailing the Avengers by a few lengths. Natasha eased the yolk to her left and the Quinjet glided into a smooth turn in the direction of the smoke. She watched as the agents followed suit, but their turn was shaky and engine two was shuddering badly. She hoped the repairs would hold.

"What was _that_?" Tony asked, peering out the front windshield at the leftover rising smoke.

"Hopefully, our target," Clint said from the copilot's seat, strapping his guard to his forearm and loading his quiver.

"When you guys get a visual, you engage. Copy?" Director Fury's voice came through the radio.

"Copy," Romanoff said, scanning the forest. They weren't far off from the mountainside now.

**/ / / / / /**

The Other, wrapped in a hooded cloak and flanked by what must have been a few remaining Chitauri, moved forward like a shadow slithering between the trees. He himself held no arms, but the five Chitauri soldiers carried deadly blades. Instead, in one of his hands hung a set of black chains.

Thor stared at him, wide-eyed. He had never laid eyes upon a creature such as this before, but he recognized the Chitauri and the threat they carried. Loki did not look well at all.

"Who's the dementor?" Jess mumbled nervously, but didn't get a response out of him. She got the vibe that that guy was bad bad news, and even Loki was clearly uncomfortable in his presence.

"What is your purpose here?" Thor said, brandishing Mjolnir. Whomever this was that had brought the Chitauri back to this world was surely not on friendly terms.

"I have been sent...by Death's Titan Himself..." the creature rasped, "to return something that belongs... to _Him_." Thor gripped the Tesseract protectively. "And _someone_ who is due to _suffer_."

Thor's face dropped as he realized the creature served Thanos. And it spoke not of him, but of Loki. He remembered the night, only a few ago, when he had come to this planet with a very similar yet different purpose...

_"...I have grown in my exile. I have seen the true power of the Tesseract. And when I wield it..." _

_"Who showed you this power? WHO CONTROLS THE WOULD-BE KING?"_

_"I AM a king!" _

So there stood his answer. He snarled in disgust;_ how could Loki have become so distraught as to deal with _this_ being, a servant of Death_? And suddenly, that answer came to him, too. _Who CONTROLS the would-be king? Controls._ Loki, one of the proudest and most independent people he'd ever met, had not denied it. His face contorted with anger. _Of course._

"There is nothing here belonging to Him, and you shall take _no one _ from us. Go now!"

The Other instead glided forward through the forest, showing no fear of Thor, closing about half the distance between himself and the Asgardians with their unfortunate humans. He relished the way Thor uneasily shifted his grip on Mjolnir, and the frozen horror in Loki's eyes...which, somehow, seemed green again, not blue. _Pity._

"Loki of Asgard..." the creature rasped, "will come with me now, or I shall take him by force." The Chitauri soldiers drew their blades, but did not step forward.

"You can't do that!" Jess said, looking in disbelief at the aliens. _More aliens, for goodness sake_. Rachel looked scared, and she didn't like them at all. If Loki had done some crazy stuff, then Emperor Palpatine here was definitely off the deep end.

The creature hissed in her direction but otherwise ignored her.

"I will have no more of your deception and cruelty!" Thor boomed in response to its demand, "Loki has indeed committed wrongs, but I know it is you who has destroyed my brother. He is coming home with me, and this will be an end for you," he pointed accusingly and shook the cube's casing for effect.

The Other cocked his hooded head to the side with a sneer, and raised a grotesque arm out in front of him, palm open. Loki realized immediately what he intended to do. He intended to pluck the Tesseract from Thor's grasp, with little more than lifting one of those hideous fingers, with his dark magic. And he intended to use it. Loki's eyes locked with the black voids under the Other's hood, and with a shudder he heard its voice echo through his mind again from memory, unaided by speech or magic.

_**"They say He courts Death, Odinson. And as I have sworn to him, we shall give her quite a show tonight."**_

wait a second.

_They say He courts Death, Odinson..._

_Odinson._

_Odinson._

**_ODINSON._**

Shaky determination flooded back, but he wouldn't let that show.

_He doesn't know - Of course he doesn't know. Well, he's in for one hell of a surprise_, Loki thought grimly as one last-ditch desperate plan came together in his mind (_Always a way out..._). If the Other got him, he was finished. If the Other got the Tesseract, it would be _worse_. He didn't trust his magic to stay stable in a fight yet, though. _But maybe.._. he thought, _Maybe a little instability is just what we need. _

Thor looked on in helpless shock as Loki carefully paced up to where the Other stood. His armor faded away as he walked. His boots crunched slowly through the leaves, his scepter hanging pointed at the ground, his face blank. The image of surrender. A blood-red, ghastly snarl of a smile filled the creature's gnarled face. He reached a cold, scarred, claw-like hand out, motioning for Loki to step closer so that he may shackle him. Thor ordered him to stop. Come back. Loki kept walking.

Just as Loki reached him, the Other moved to close that terrible claw around his wrist - but Loki's deft hand was faster. He snatched the creature's forearm in his ice-cold fist, nails cutting into its deformed flesh. With a hiss that was half hatred and half crazed fear, he locked eyes with the Other and peeled back every magical barrier Odin had carefully put into place. He took down the walls which he himself had been holding. He let go. Freed of it's disguising bonds, he allowed that ancient heritage to unbury itself and _rise_. He opened the floodgates and willed every bit of that dark, eons-old magic to come pouring out.

And, naturally, it did.

The Other screamed in appalled rage and terrible agony as a layer of thick, dark ice engulfed him from head to toe, freezing him into a grotesque garden statue from Hel. Underneath the ice, his flesh was black with frostbite, and the shock of the moment was preserved perfectly on its face. Loki released his hold on the creature's wrist and tried not to stumble backwards. He was breathing heavily; the magic had swept out so fast, and he couldn't quite believe he'd done it. He stared at the thing for a moment with ruby red eyes, and then reversed his hold on the scepter in his other hand. The polished metal frosted over in his grip. He brought it back to his shoulder, and swung hard.

The shining gold butt of the scepter struck the statue that was the Other dead center. It shattered like a million plates of glass; a horrible screech that seemed to go on forever filled the forest.

And then it was gone.

**/ / / / / / /**

"Did anybody copy that?" Natasha said. Even inside the jet she couldn't have missed _that_ terrible noise, as close as they were to its origin. Bruce had actually cringed.

"Copy," Hill radioed back, "and closing. Weapons systems online?"

"Check."

"Then let's move in. Reducing altitude by 300 feet, airspeed at 50 knots and dropping. Radio if you get a 20 on them."

"Copy."

**/ / / / / / /**

**I was so happy for Loki while writing this. This is by far the chapter I've had the most fun writing. Review and remember the deal! see how much you can get typed in the review box in twenty seconds. ready, GO!**


	19. Not Out Of The Woods Yet

**Hi! I'm back, and I'm really excited about posting this chapter. I've been tweaking it and the following one for the past few days so now I'm putting it up. A big THANK YOU to all those who have reviewed, and authors remember: one honest review on my story = one review on yours asap. Not to spoil anything, but I would really like some honest reviews on battle scenes especially because I've never written action.**

**The next chapter will be posted shortly as it is in its final stages, and until then enjoy this one! sorry if it jumps POV changes sometimes I'm still working on that for the action spots**

**I don't own Marvel, in case you were wondering.**

**and BEHOLD - i found this song on the internets too:**

_Take my hand I will lead you out_

_ Of this darkness you have found _

_Your past is on your heels now _

_ You're not Out of the Woods yet_

_It only gets deeper, it only gets darker,_

_ it only gets deeper, the further you go_

_ It only gets deeper, it only gets darker, _

_ it only gets deeper, it only gets darker_

**/ / / / /**

Loki turned away from the remains and walked through the narrow trees back to where the others stood. Thor had frozen with his hammer aloft, as if he were about to throw it at something, but suddenly that something wasn't there. Jane had gone to his side, and was staring at Loki with an expression he couldn't place. She was a clever girl; he supposed she knew of the Other's intentions by now. And of course of the Chitauri - one could not remain at close proximity to Thor without enduring a neverending slew of battle stories.

But her nostrils flared with her carefully controlled breathing, and he worried she might have also guessed by now what he'd intended to do to her before the Other had come... and he'd had to deal...with that. _No matter...It is finished now._ He wanted to push that creature from his mind as soon as possible.

The other two Midgardians were staring with the same expression of awe, and he was more than a bit surprised himself that his attack had worked. Only moments ago he'd been thinking it would be the last thing he'd ever do.

**/ / /**

"Loki..." Thor rumbled, not quite sure what to say. He was relieved; for a moment he'd thought that Loki actually intended to give himself up, and that _monster _ had meant to fight for possession of his brother and the Tesseract... But at the same time, he felt the urgency to return to Asgard. At this point it was not only justice he sought there, but safety. He could hear the whir of Midgardian aircraft; they would be only minutes away now.

Loki raised an eyebrow, and sat down to rest on a rotting fallen log. His skin was slowly paling, as he got control of the magic once more, Thor guessed. He looked weary, and strained, and his wound was bleeding slightly again. Thor knew better than to point that out now - he could only imagine what was going through his head. He was a unpredictable on a normal day, and they had not had a normal day for quite some time.

The Chitauri, grouped behind where the Other had stood only minutes before, looked to each other and chattered frantically in their hiss-growl language, gesturing to their fallen leader. They were a vile bunch, with beady yellow eyes and deathly pale skin clad in crudely fashioned armor. Their helmets plated the tops of their heads and covered their beastly, narrow jaws. Each held a bladed staff and various energy blasters concealed in their armor. Their chatter grew angry, and within moments they began to slowly advance on the Loki and the rest of the group, weapons at the ready.

Jessica's eyes widened and she pointed silently at the approaching aliens; words seemed to have failed her now. Thor handed the Tesseract to Jane and turned on them with a snarl. For a minute he'd almost forgotten they'd come along with the Other, but now there was no chance he would allow the creatures near his group.

He stepped forward, spinning Mjolnir to his side, and crouched low, his posture similar to when he'd fought off advancing waves of a very different breed, in a different world, in a different time. The first of the soldiers reached him and he snapped the hammer around, connecting with the side of its head with a solid _thump_. It was hurled backwards far over the heads of the others, and flew hard into the trunk of one of the thick trees. Something snapped, and it fell and lay limp on the ground.

A second creature reached Thor, and then a third. They seemed to take no notice of the first, only of the fight at hand. They slashed at him fiercely with double-bladed spears, and he deflected the blows easily with Mjolnir. He spun and brought the hammer down, snapping one of their staffs in two with a_ CRACK_. They circled, the Chitauri growing angrier and angrier, hissing and spitting at him in hopes of provoking a foolish attack.

The one which had lost it's blade drew a sort of rifle from a sheath on his back, and fired a blast of energy at Thor. He ducked and it shot over him, burning through the trees behind. He responded with a bolt of lightning to its chest, blasting it in a scorched heap back into its comrades.

Overhead, a storm was brewing. The dark clouds slowly grew, blocking out whatever sun filtered through the aspens.

**/ /./ /**

Loki looked up at the gathering clouds, and then back at Thor. _This would often happen when we were training_, he remembered fondly. He recalled the other children joking that it would be nice to have just one practice in the sun. Their jests had not improved the weather.

He watched as Thor fought off the few Chitauri easily, having jumped to his and the Midgardians' defense without any hesitation whatsoever. _Perhaps it was for the best_, he thought, _that I was not been given the chance to harm Jane._

The Other's arrival had come not as a complete shock, but had obviously been unsettling for all of them, especially him. Loki's time after the abyss had changed him, to put it lightly. Thanos and the Other had made their intentions and demands crystal clear, and even Loki had long ago deemed them untrustworthy with such a powerful object as the cube. In his keen and critical eyes, they both belonged as far away as possible from his power and his daughter (Hela, goddess of Death). But to voice those thoughts at the time would have cost him much more than his life.

Of course, he could not blame everything on their craving for power. With a sort of sinking yet exhilarating feeling, he knew that his own lust for power and vengeance had been his driving force as much as any threat. It still was. Midgardians were entertaining, perhaps annoying at times, but he still wanted to rule them. Now was not the time, though. Now was the time to slip away without a trace - something the God of Mischief was particularly good at. Earth's scattered heroes would be upon them in the near future, so decisions had to be made soon. Thanos was tucked away in a far, nearly unreachable corner of the universe for now, with no source of power and no known ally, now that the Other was dead.

_I could go now,_ he realized, and no one could follow him without the cube.

He wasn't sure what to do about escaping; he was still focusing on catching his breath and trying to believe that what he'd just done to the Other had been real. The fading blue in his hands was evidence enough; he refused to look at the remains.

Jessica and Rachel were crouched behind the log, staring wide-eyed at the latest action. Loki watched as Thor finished off the Chitauri, ducking, dodging, swinging Mjolnir, and throwing the occasional punch. (He'd left the Tesseract with Jane, so now his hand was free-)

_He'd left the Tesseract with Jane_.

_Only Jane. Perfect. _

The Other no longer existed, Thanos was far away without means of transport energy, the Avengers weren't here yet, Thor was distracted, and the cube was his for the taking. It was a perfect storm. He could disappear. He could take it and be on his way; he needn't harm anyone else...

**/ / / / /**

Thor knocked the last footsoldier to the ground with a growl, and kicked it for good measure. He no longer held the same bloodlust he'd relished in his youth, but these creatures deserved whatever wounds he inflicted. He stepped over the body and walked back towards his friends. He was about to tell them to move out towards the overlook, when one look at his brother made his priorities change.

Loki had risen from his resting place on the log and was making his way over to where Jane stood, clutching the cube. He held his staff and was surely about to open his mouth and demand the Tesseract from her, but Thor spoke first.

"Loki!" he said simply, trying to stay calm. Loki hadn't killed Jane on the spot, so Thor hoped it might mean that he was looking to get away with as little bloodshed as possible. Still, he should have expected something like this.

Jessica gasped, and Loki spun to face Thor. Green eyes widened, with a look of apprehension in them that wasn't usually there. He didn't seem particularly concerned with Jane, or like he had been caught doing something wrong. He looked..._conflicted_, Thor decided; he looked like he was debating his next course of action as he stared right past him into the forest.

Whatever it was, he must have decided because a second later he had turned away from Jane - and before Thor had time to react, Loki's scepter was flying straight at him.

One of the Midgardians screamed. The razor-sharp blade missed Thor's head by mere inches; he felt the air as it flashed past dangerously near. _He never misses..._

Strangely, its thrower didn't look at all disappointed.

"Loki!" he thundered, brandishing Mjolnir without looking back. Brothers or no, he had to defend himself and the others. Apparently 'no-bloodshed escape' had not been Loki's intention after all, and he had just thrown away his only weapon.

**/ / / /**

Loki frowned calmly and cocked his head. An enraged Thor was not a pretty sight. Not at all. His blue eyes flashed and his lips curled back, the gathering wind snapping at his hair. His biceps flexed and he was about to hurl Mjolnir when, apparently, the vile choking noise coming from behind him _finally_ reached his ears. _Unobservant oaf._

He looked over his shoulder, and the winds died immediately.

**/ / / /**

Thor found one of the Chitauri, fallen now, struggling for the last few seconds of its life at his feet; it must have risen and crept up behind him when he'd turned away, thinking it was finished...

The blade of Loki's scepter was buried up to the shaft in its throat.

**/ / / /**

Loki raised an eyebrow as Thor removed the staff and returned to the group. Jane hugged him, crying but relieved, but Thor could only stare, dumbfounded, at his brother.

"I..ahh..." he said, but that was as far as he got.

"You thought I _missed_?" Loki said, half-smirking. He plucked the scepter from Thor's hand before he could protest, and started methodically cleaning the blade.

**/ / /**

Jess clambered over the log, "Nice shot, Loki!" she said, clapping him on the shoulder awkwardly. He'd looked like he was going to make a run for it for a second there, but had apparently changed his mind when that sicko alien snuck up on Thor.

"I thank you, broth-" green eyes flashed, "...Loki."

There was a long pause. "You intended to make off with the Tesseract," Thor said, frowning and taking it from Jane's arms.

"I did," Loki said slowly, for once telling the truth.

"Guys, do you hear that?" Jess interrupted before he could inquire further, looking through the golden leaves to the sky. She had forgotten a few minutes ago with the Other's arrival and then the Chitauri's attack, but now they could clearly hear not the whir of a helicopter, but the roar of engines of something much more powerful.

"They shall arrive in but a few moments," Thor said, deciding this was more important than questioning Loki, "Let us go now." He grabbed Loki by the arm and started to tow him through the crisp aspens in the direction of the overlook. The girls followed, happy to be putting distance between themselves and the dead aliens and getting closer to escaping the government. They couldn't have been more than twenty-five feet away now; Jess could see where the trees stopped and gave way to a clear, rocky area where Jane theorized the cube's signal would have a better chance at connecting.

"Don't touch me!"

"Loki, you must still return to Asgard." They stopped at the very edge of the trees before the overlook, and Loki wrenched his arm out of Thor's grip.

"And why should I?" he spat, turning on him, "Let me remind you that I _could_ have been gone by now."

"Guys..." Jess mumbled quietly, but went unheard.

"You needn't remind me... but Father -"

"Do you _truly_ believe your father will show any decency towards _me_?" Thor was silent.

"Hey, um, _guys_..." she said, worried now.

"Give me the Tesseract, and I'll be on my way. I won't touch your precious _earth_," Loki said through gritted teeth. Ruling could wait. He had to _go_.

"You know I cannot allow that," Thor said crossly. Loki had already made one honest statement concerning the cube today - two was too much to hope for.

Jess would have rolled her eyes, had she not been so scared. Even now, these two couldn't go an hour without arguing (and when they argued they were pretty much oblivious to everything else).

"Loki! Thor!"

"_What!?"_ Loki snapped, finally acknowledging her protests.

She didn't respond, but instead pointed silently toward the sky. _Too late. _ They were definitely _not_ getting out of the woods yet.

**/ / / / /**

**So how was that? REVIEW BELOW! **

**and btw I know I mentioned Loki's daughter being goddess of Death...she's not really in the story but in mythology, that's true - Hela is Loki's daughter by Angrboda, and is generally known as goddess of Death or ruler of the underworld. I thought that was an interesting tidbit of mythology to throw in, and when I realized at the end of avengers they said Thanos courts Death I was like wait...ew.**


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